Hiramani is invited to a gala, held by Sir Stevon of Antire for his dear daughter Theresa's coming out into society. Intended as an invent for dear Theresa to meet the other nobility, and begin her proper introductions to the men at court. Sir Stevon, it was remembered, earned his title more for his backing of war interests than for any blue blood or heroic activity. He is a very wealthy industrialist.

Hiramani's invite was for herself and a guest. She agonized, momentarily, over who to bring. She wanted to shake up Proper Society a bit, but didn't want to do it in her name, fearing impropriety. Hiramani attempted to persuade her good friend, the naive Mellynthias, to take her friend Tanzit -- a rather rough dwarven druid.

Hiramani neglected to inform Mellynthias of the nature of Tanzit, which caused some consternation when they finally met. Ultimately, Hiramani and Tanzit went to the Gala together, while Mellynthias went with another of his friends, Melissa -- a somewhat severely attractive woman.

Meanwhile, Saral was hanging out in his room at Davernus' hangout when the big boss, Davernus Hellsfoot, came a-calling. He needed Saral to attend 'some gala up some tower' and drop off 'some device' to a patron of Davernus'.

The device, according to Davernus, was retrieved under duress from the wild continent of Xen'drik, and was now destined for some collector's cabinets. In passing, Davernus also suggested the device wasn't so healthy to keep close to the skin.

The patron was described as a man, in a peacock-themed green suit, and with white hair from 'an incident some time back'. Furnishing Saral with a forged invite, Davernus went on his way.

Moving forward to the start of the party, Hiramani, Tanzit and Saral run into each other fairly soon after their mutual arrivals. Hiramani rescued Saral from one of the tasked 'greeters' at the party -- Thomas -- people who home in on wallflowers, and drag them into socializing. Thomas was extolling the virtues of how his eldest son had just been gored by a boar at his first hunting expedition.

There was some discussion of the wine served at this event -- Tanzit was less than thrilled with the potency of the elven vineyards. Saral filled Hiramani and Tanzit in on the rough details for his presence, and a description of who he was looking for.

After some time, Tanzit spotted the green suited man. Only he was a warforged, and the only green suited being at the whole party. Saral, naturally, wasn't so impressed with Davernus' description.

Saral made his way up to the warforged, and delivered the item concealed within a ring box. He noted, while there, that the warforged had odd silvery etchings along the back of his head like hair laced with leaves.

The face of the green suited warforged was sculpted in delicate copper to mimic an innocent angelic face. As it smiled, the metal wrinkled like slow-moving skin; some hidden gears and machinery pulling the copper into expression. It wasn't very convincing. A cold metal smile for a cold metal being.

Saral then went out of his way to conceal his activities by approaching other random guests and delivering 'messages' to each. One woman, Delilah, was particularly painful due to her obliviousness and self-absorption. A white-suited man, Baldric, who was equally self-absorbed and dressed was informed that a lady in the crowd thought he looked well tonight.

Task completed, Saral made a hasty exit from the party.

Tanzit and Hiramani kept with the festivities, but began noticing people complaining about headaches. at first it was just a couple of people. Then some people began to faint. Tanzit noticed that it moved through the crowd in a wave, centring on the adoring Sir Stevon and his daughter Theresa.

Horrid understanding dawned on Hiramani and Tanzit as they rushed towards the hosts, but the crowd was getting thick with the fainting and their worried friends. Before they could reach the pair, Theresa was suddenly no longer visible behind a red haze and screaming guests.

When Hiramani and Tanzit reached the hosts, they found a distraught Sir Stevon kneeling over the body of his beloved daughter. Poor Theresa's hands twitched and clenched, despite her head being missing from the neck up. A ragged stump of spine was all that remained.

Nearby, guests were bleeding from impact of thousands of tiny bone fragments, with none being more wounded than Sir Stevon himself -- his face was a ragged mess. Some healing magic later, Sir Stevon was rapidly cycling through the stages of denial before settling on rage.

The session ended with Sir Stevon swearing holy vengeance on all his enemies, and the murderer of his only daughter.