Hearing about a job, Graven and Split-Ear (Mepp’tik’chu’tipik) went to the Sign of the Crooked Sword for the interview while Elwynn went to the Foundry to see to personal business. At the tavern, Graven and Split-Ear met a dwarven Signer named Gedramak, who wanted them to find a barmy named Eliath that had gone missing in The Hive.

The pair of them went first to the Great Library to look for any tax or property records on Eliath (as well as on their employer.) On Eliath this was a dead end, so the decided to look in The Hive themselves.

Graven started the search by hiring street urchins to do the looking for him, using magical healing and coin to buy their loyalty. Eventually they established a base in a Hive Ward Inn called Sal’s Place, owned and operated by a band of half-orc bashers.

Graven sent a message to Elwynn, informing them of their new center of operations, then he and Split-Ear split up. While Graven ran into trouble on his own, Split-Ear caught wind of an Eliath sighting at The Butchers Block. That evening, the two of them joined back up, and debated the merits of operating an orphanage in The Hive until Elwynn arrived.

They spent the night at Sal’s Place, and checked out The Butcher’s Block the next morning. There, Graven met one of the tenants—Shadowknave, and the two discussed arcane matters.

Graven then interviewed Trunfeld Three-Teeth, but before he could get any information from the ogre, Derioch of the Bleak Cabal stepped in to find out what the Finders Guild was doing in The Hive, having caught wind of some berk hiring up orphans in their territory.

Graven claimed that they were searching for Eliath since he was rumored to be a wizard, and perhaps the barmy would be able to take care of an arcane matter for him. Derioch informed him that his search was over, on account of the fact that Elaith was dead, as have a number of other barmys in The Hive lately.

The two group agree to share information going forward, but when Graven suggests interrogating the dead, Derioch refuses, saying she won’t pay coin to listen to the rantings of dead barmys.

Later in the streets, the party noticed a conspicuous barmy dancing around in the streets, spouting off the names of abyssal powers. After passing from sight, they hear the insane man attacked, and find him dead without a mark on him. Later they met Mourner Tom’s band of collectors—berks who collect the dead off the street and deliver the bodies to the Dustmen for coin. Not missing an opportunity, Graven hires them to find Eliath.

The party then heads to The Mortuary, and run across Mordrigaarz Anthill and his Xaositect crew, who attack the Finders Guild without provocation. The Finders Guild holds it’s own, and so a parlay ensued. The Chaosmen explained that they were trusting in the force of chaos to locate whoever was killing the insane in The Hive, by attacking everyone they came across, they would eventually get the guilty party.

Agreeing to stay out of each other’s way, the party moved on, later stumbling on the murder of a barmy in progress, conducted by Shadowknave. Graven cautioned the group against attacking an arcanist of that caliber, and they moved on to see if they could determine what the dustmen knew.

At The Mortuary, Toranna the Gray gave them a tour of the facility which culminated in a demonstration of a portal to the plane of fire. Since all unknown corpses were deposited into this portal, the party was once again at a dead end.

Working their way back through The Hive, the party came across Remington Kemitet, fighting for his live as an ooze puddle was drawing him in. After they helped free him, it became apparent that the elf was even more clueless than they were, as he didn’t speak the local language, making Graven the only person he could communicate with. Deciding to take him along with them, they quickly touched based with the Bleakers and went back to Sal’s place.

The next morning Gedramak called them back, reporting that Eliath was alive and with the Doomguard. The party was then assigned to get in contact with Eliath asap, as he had some chant Gedramak wanted. Taking a detour to set Remington up at their former Inn, the party went to the Black Sail to clandestinely confirm Eliath’s faction affiliation and to have him tailed.

While waiting on the results of the tailing, Split-Ear joined the Cyphers and caught rumors of a wererat pack in undersigil. Graven and Remington followed up on their information on Gedramak to make sure their employer was on the up and up, and Elwynn found himself his own kip as well as checked up with the Godsmen to see if they had any strange new recruits.

The group then met up at Sal’s Place the next day to pool info. Sharp-Tooth—who had been following Eliath—reported that Eliath was staying on the 2nd floor of the Black Sail. While going back to the Black Sail to confront him, they bumped again into the dancing man, now sane. The dancing man was now going by the name Tylaric, and was a Godsman. Questioning him revealed that he had recently died and met his god, and was ressurected and told to join up with that faction to improve his life.

Tylaric was then shepherded to The Black Sail to meet Eliath while Elwynn peeled off to report Tylaric to his faction. Eliath turned out to have a similar story to Tylaric, and the pair was left to go about their business. The party reported back to Gedramak, who payed them for finishing the job, but promised more if they could get Eliath to tell him the key to The Isle of Black Trees before the week was up.

The job done, the party decided to continue following the mystery of the disappearing/reappearing barmys. After gathering up some ruffians in The Hive, they set up an operation to blackmail Toranna to see if they could flush her out as an accomplice to the disappearances.

A messenger was sent into The Mortuary to deliver their ultimatum, but he returned empty handed, claiming that Toranna threw herself into the fire portal when she read the message. The party used the messenger as a pretext to get back into The Mortuary, claiming that Toranna had sent for them.

Some experimentation in the portal room proved that items stuck through the fire portal did not combust, casting suspicion on The Mortuary being a dead end after all. While trying to decide what to do next, Elwynn brashly ran through the portal, into the hands of waiting guards on the other side who quickly snatched him up and imprisoned him—though not before he was able to signal to the others that there was trouble.

The rest of party informed the Dustmen that the other side of their fire portal had been compromised, and they sent a small group to accompany the party in an investigation. Going through the portal, the party discovered a citadel of fire that the portal had lead to had been enchanted to create a bubble of air, allowing it to be inhabited.

Soon after their arrival, the inhabitants of the citadel were alerted to their presence, necessitating that they fight their way into the citadel proper in search of Elwynn. During this battle, Remington shape-shifted into some kind of devil, allowing him to cut through the guards with relative ease.

In his cell, Elwynn found himself surrounded by barmies, and found it difficult to get useful information out of them. Eventually the party found Elwynn and questioned his guards, learning that the organization manning the citadel called itself The Illuminated. Word of their presence had spread though, and they had to fight their way through the offices and into the citadel chapel.

Therein, a blue glowing stone was found floating over the altar. Graven grabbed the gem, preventing the enchantment keeping the citadel habitable from renewing. The rapidly escalating temperature caused a mass evacuation from the citadel, which the party managed to survive. The Dustmen paid the party for sealing the breach, and with all other leads gone, the Finders Guild were forced to conclude their involvement. Shortly thereafter, each member was discretely visited by a mysterious stranger and advised not to mention their involvement in the entire affair.