July 7, The One with the Trash Monster and the Professor

The party was ambushed in the Caserma District of Pelnaad by three genasi warriors - a dextrous female causticsoul named Deska, a male plaguesoul warrior of the wild and a loosely-clothed male icesoul of giant proportions and terrifying speed. The warriors assaulted the party, and told the party that they only wanted Baiden for his past crimes. When Vensil entered the fray, the warriors identified him as a Gray Academy wizard and began to target him as well.

During the engagement, the plaguesoul genasi hit Baiden with a bag of powder, leaving him with a glowing, pulsing rune that he could not escape. Over time, the shadows in the area and the trash littering the street began to increase, until an Oppidan Wraith appeared in the party's midst. The foul behemoth of darkness and refuse was nigh unstoppable, its dark energies limiting the ability of the party to regain their breath, leaving both Valandra and Baiden near death.

When our brave heroes finally bested the wraith, they began to look for help. They found it in a pair of Iron Attendants who brought the party back to a waiting room where they were interrogated, and the Attendants made it clear they would be keeping their eye on Baiden.

When the Attendants let the party go, it was morning, so the party, exhausted, made their way back to the Institute Caraterri and to the lab of Faelmane Bowertop. There, she and her assistants attempted to remove the fey curse from Anvar. Though the ritual they invoked was strong, they were unable to both remove the curse within the scope of the limitation that they keep Anvar alive.

After the curse-removal ritual failed, the Valandra and Talon interrogated one of Faelmane's assistants, a Fezik Starmantle of the Westmote Starmantles. Valandra and Talon heard Fezik mention the name Vance's, and they grilled him until he divulged the method for gaining entrance to the gambling parlor. In doing so, the found out that Celedur, the fourth husband of Lady Inyela Ironblossom, owed one hundred gold farthings to a loan shark named Pleiades. Pleiades is (rumor has it) a hulking warforged who had his head sculpted into that of a bull. One hundred gold farthings isn't enough to cause someone to disappear, though, so something is clearly afoot.

At Valandra's insistence, Baiden and Idilai made it clear to Faelmane that in addition to Anvar's curse, they had sought our her guidance and knowledge with regards to what might appear to be an invasion from the Feywild. Faelmane said that the Witenagemot had lost contact with many nations in the Feywild recently, and has assumed that it was the doing of Corleth, the Archfey Lord of Midnight, whose dominion includes the area where Pelnaad appears in the Feywild. She promised to send help to Wolfridge Crossing, and sent a message to Mayor Creen, and informed the party that the key to Anvar's troubles might be found in either Darmagon or the Astral Sovereign.