Report on capture attempt
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Our friend Mikul, the drunken Sheriff Bron, Blood Shark Gura of the Precept, and myself went down into the smugglers' tunnels beneath the city to hunt the necromancer Rend, who was a chief player in the attack on Eveningstar. Somehow, Mikul managed to get a key to the necromancer's base, and we stormed in and captured him in a brief scuffle---he was caught red-handed (black-handed?) raising the bodies of dwarven mercenaries as henchmen when we came upon him.
After this, we dragged him to the Precept headquarters in chains (though I would have preferred we got custody, it is perhaps better not to make a thirty-mile journey with a deadly mage in tow), where Naresh prepared a vial of some kind of serum which has the ability to cut magical folk off from the Weave. This was to be his punishment, followed by a stay in our dungeons, but at the last possible moment, he was broken out by magical means---a darkness spell came upon us, and he was able to flee, as some people of the Sands were able to tunnel into the Precept's Menagerie.
We have learned that Rend is working with Nazim, the leader of the "sand snakes" (not sure if this is a real name for their group, or the drunken Sheriff's epithet...), and in particular is being tasked with raising the Scourge of the Sands from the dead. Though the capture failed, members of the Precept were able to secure blood vials for tracking, and we now have confirmed a connection between these two groups---meaning that now it will be possible to kill two birds with one stone.
They are supposedly now galvanized into a well-supplied and well-armed military force, these people of the sands; I believe it would be best if we can put some serious manpower support behind this, although one of the others opined that perhaps support for Nazim among the other tribes would fall away if it became clear he were using necromantic means to augment his own power.
At any rate, we are one step closer to solving our problem.
-Dawnsquire Lautrec
[An addendum, tacked to the previous report by a small pin:]
Forgot to mention this---Rend referred to Jack Wild, leader of the Scarlet Syndicate, as "nascent[ly] ascending". It seems that he strives for godhood...this bodes quite ill, but I am not sure what is to be done about this besides grinding the Scarlets to dust as soon as possible.
