After finding their missing companion half in his cups with no memories of the previous day at all (let alone a monstrous chronovore, demon, people skins, etc), the group assembled to figure out what to do about the skins they had found last session.

They had stumbled upon the perfectly dressed, immaculate skins of three people under the guard / protection / or possession of a demon.

One of these they recognized as the elder of the Beardsmith dwarven clan – a gentledwarf rarely seen outside of the dwarven enclaves, but who would probably make an appearance at Dwarves Night in three nights (the night commemorating the departure of most of the dwarves from this world at the end of the great war).

Another was of Darius an Durrend, a playboy and dilettante who thinks himself a fair duelist (although he isn’t – as the duelist in the party was quite aware having bested him two years back).

The party checked around for information on the two people, suspecting them of being replaced by something foul. They get a little information here and there, but also find out that the house of Durrend is currently in turmoil. Arriving at the house they manage to wrangle out of the majordomo of the house that the head of the house and his son are both our searching for a missing / kidnapped handservant. The majordomo had been out searching for her already and returned to find the home even more stirred up than when he left, with conflicting stories that the serving girl had already turned up, but that this sent the father off immediately, incredibly upset.

They decided that this meant that someone had figured out that the father and son were replaced (and maybe the daughter) and they were now on the warpath to prevent the further spread of this information.

With some diplomacy and investigation, they figured out that the son (Darius an Durrend, the playboy they are seeking) was at the House of Deryre – a tea-bar south of the red light district that serves a salty alcoholic tea that can be laced with strong soporifics and hallucinogens so the devout can fully explore their consciousness. At the House of Deryre they wrangle the young lad into an alleyway with worried tales of people searching for him all around town… where they promptly knocked him unconscious, pilfered his belongings, and ascertained that while his skin seemed to be pretty solidly part of his body, his blood was an insectile ichor.

With this information in hand, they brought it to the House of Crane (the family of the party’s young noble) and presented the proof that the House of Durrend was being controlled by something foul and inhuman. They were then tasked by the elder of the house to bring back the senior an Durrend so the house of Crane could make the most of this situation.

Back at the Durrend estate, they mostly convinced the majordomo of the issues at hand and wrangled the most likely location for the father of the House of Durrend to be (the temple of Barathmon – demon of the vanquished). At the temple they find one of the house man-at-arms of Durrend at zero hit points, bandaged and slowly recovering as the temple guards and two other men-at-arms lay dead inside. Putting the information back together from the survivor, the Durrend patriarch arrived here, got into a yelling match with the priest of Barathmon and then the fighting began. He since departed heading towards the old hunting grounds where he usually hunts, with the priest trussed to the back of his horse.

Catching up to him, the party commandeers a night soil wagon (using the folk hero background of Kothar) and pursue into the stony highlands northeast of the City of the Gods. When they finally close up to them, the patriarch’s men-at-arms form a skirmishing line to protect their liege. In the ensuing battle, many are struck down by Kothar’s dragon breath, but Kothar is unseated from the wagon, and it rushes onwards and out of the battle. All the passengers jump off to engage in combat except for Mara who attempts to regain control of the vehicle…

In but a couple of rounds all the men-at-arms were quickly defeated, leaving the Patriarch facing off against the group. He demanded that they let him go to rescue his daughter – that they could have his money and the goods of his men, but that he had no time to discuss anything else until his daughter was returned to him.

And the party struck him down as he turned to escape.

Mara finally gave up on regaining control of the horses and cart, jumped off, and walked back to the group. Rasha grabbed a horse to chase after the Patrician’s horse to recover the priest. Quinn and Bei Ji confirmed that Kothar was quite dead, and looted him down to his underwear.