"And I smell a wild storm in you, Thayan. Does your ally know the secrets you hide? Grief and confusion beyond measure... and something more..."

He shakes his head roughly. "Enough words! By the oath I swore, neither of you will leave my den!"

He charges at Ciaveth.

“It is very dumb to try to keep me in a den of spirits!” complains Ciaveth, but okay, it’s fighting time, then.

Step one: Curse of Impending Blades, on the big rainbow bear. Step two: draw the big rainbow bear away from the squishy wizard to give her space for casting. Step three: stab.

It's a solid plan, and Safiya seems to appreciate it. She expresses her appreciation by extending two fingers and casting a twinned Disintegrate. The green rays strike the bear unerringly.

He roars in agony and dissipates, leaving not even the dust of a successful disintegration behind.

"Oh, Disintegrate, my truest friend," Safiya says happily. "I don't think we managed to kill the bear god for good, but he'll be re-forming for a while yet. Let's get out of this place and see the sunlight again."

Wizards are such bullshit and it’s so unfair that she hasn’t been able to focus on studying wizardry exclusively. Instead she keeps needing to stab things. Because they’re trying to kill her. Sigh. At least she got to stab the bear before he got not-quite-dusted by the real wizard in the den.

“Yes, let’s. And prepare for when he inevitably comes after me, because I bet he’s going to.” Because of course he is. Maybe he’ll bring an army, that’ll be exciting.

"Regrettably, yes, I think that's quite likely."

They step outside, and Safiya casts Greater Teleport, and they're standing about half a mile from the gates of a modest city - not Neverwinter-sized, but not West Harbor either. "Just ahead of us stand the gates of Mulsantir. You've been eviscerated, paralyzed, assaulted by spirits, and insulted by a very large bear... how are you feeling?"

"Cranky. Generally offended at the state of the world and my treatment in it. Otherwise fine. ... You might want to change, though, I uh, don't. Imagine the Rashemi view Red Wizards of Thay fondly." Considering how many times Thay has tried to conquer its neighbors. Like Rashemen. The country that they are in. With its very famous Red Wizards of Thay. Who are, generally speaking, in charge of Thay.

Safiya nods. "Your resilience is admirable. And I have a disguise in my pack, not to worry."

She pulls a hooded green robe out from her bag and strips unselfconsciously to change into it. "Hopefully you have the energy for one more task before we find you some long-overdue rest. I've brought you here to speak with Lienna - she'll hopefully know what happened to you in the barrow, and why."

Oh dear that is a naked wizard, okay, looking away now, looking away!

"I'm fine. Honestly, I've barely used any spells. Being unconscious is like resting, anyway. It probably counts as eight hours of sleep."

"I'm sorry, I'd put up an illusory screen but illusion is one of my forbidden schools. I'm clothed again."

She is indeed clothed, and she's taken out a makeup compact to apply some concealer over her forehead tattoo. "I don't enjoy hiding who I am... but needs must. I wish Ipsit and Sefi had returned from scouting, I worry they may have gotten lost."

"It's fine," assures Ciaveth, whose blush speaks otherwise. Look, she might look all cosmopolitan and worldly, but actually she came from a little nowhere village in a swamp, so.

"Your... constructs?" she guesses, from context.

"Yes. They're homunculi - sentient creatures, created by my magics."

"Sort of like me," says the voice from inside her robe (which apparently made the transition). "Only not as smart. Or good-looking!"

"Much like Kaji, yes, but these were more primitive creations. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they got lost on the way. I sent them to find Lienna and let her know I was on my way, you see, but sometimes it seems like they can hardly navigate the halls of the Academy where they've spent their whole lives."

Ciaveth nods. "Well, I hope they're all right. Hello, Kaji, nice to meet you properly."

"Nice to meet See-vett too!" the voice says.

A small implike creature made of clay flies out from under Safiya's robe to examine Ciaveth more closely. "See-vett is pretty! Much more pretty than most of Mistress's Red Weezer friends."

Awww, he's cute. And she's not immune to being called pretty; she preens, just a little.

"Thank you. You can call me Cia if it's easier to say. That, uh, goes for both of you, I don't mind." Just not Knight-Captain, she is so sick of hearing that title. There is no reason for her to specifically mention that. Speaking of...

She takes off her stupid ugly yellow cape of Neverwinter, with its giant dumb ugly star, and she does precisely what she's wanted to do with it since she first got it. She casts Burning Hands and incinerates it.

"Hm," she hums, with an air of long withheld satisfaction. Then, back to business. "To the city, then? To interrogate Lienna?"

"...yes," Safiya says slowly. She beckons Kaji back into her robe and they walk along the road until they reach the gates proper. The gates stand open, and they enter the city without difficulty.

"The Veil Theater, where Lienna resides, is close to the gates, or so I'm told," Safiya says. "-ah, there it is. How convenient. Shall we go in immediately, or buy you a new cloak? Unless your spell was meant to indicate a distaste for the whole class of garment."

"Lienna first, then shopping. I think I'd want to buy more than just a new cloak, but it can wait." Her coin purse came along with her spell component pouches, fortunately for her. She had more money in her bag of holding, and even more back at Crossroads Keep, but this is enough to go shopping in a new city with.

"Our priorities are aligned, then."

The Veil Theater has a prominent stage, upon which stands a Red Wizard with a nasty sneer, and an audience, which contains half a dozen gnolls holding axes.

"Safiya!" the Red Wizard says. "The daughter of Nefris, here? I should have recognized those two homunculi as your handiwork..."

"What are you doing here?" she asks. "And what did you do to Ipsit and Sefi?"

"We caught them nosing around the theater. My minions toyed with them for a while, before dismembering them... your primitive little creations are no more."

Ciaveth winces, then scowls.

"Well, you're quite rude, aren't you. I don't suppose you're here to enjoy the local theater?"

"Unlikely," Safiya says coldly. "He never did have any class. No, this is one of the necromancy students at the Academy. A fledgling graverobber. When I left to find you, my mother was busy taking care of some upstarts at the academy. No doubt he's another pawn in that ridiculous coup."

"A shame I can't let you walk free, stranger," he says, ignoring Safiya's no doubt hurtful words. "But you're as likely to warn the Witches as to flee. As for you, Safiya - Araman would have us strangled if we let the headmistress's daughter slip away for a second time..."

He starts casting something, which Safiya promptly counterspells. "Moron," she says as the gnolls approach.

Yeah, the gnolls are her problem, aren't they. She knows the drill. Protect the squishy caster, blah blah.

Mass Curse of Impending Blades, she intones, at the gnolls, and then it is stabbing time so they do not bother the wizard while she swats an upstart student.

What's that? They want to hit her? Ahahahaha, funny, do you know how many people have tried to hit her? Many. Many have tried it. And a great many of them were better creatures than you, gnolls, and in greater numbers. To say she is ready for this is an understatement, she is a terrifying whirl of death and destruction and she doesn't even need her fancy broken magic sword to do it. Stabs for everyone that is dumb enough to come near her, which is going to be most of them, because she is coming for them.

Meanwhile the apprentice attempts to cast another spell. Instead of counterspelling him, this time Safiya Disintegrates him. As his dust floats downward into a neat pile, she turns a Cone of Cold on the gnolls.

Tralalala, stab stab stab stab dancing whirl of death and destruction, this is rather fun.

They run out of gnolls before any of them actually make it to the squishy caster. Ciaveth catches any stragglers and makes a point of herding most of the gnolls into easy area of effect zone.

"Well aren't we glad we didn't go shopping first," says Ciaveth, casually removing her rapier from the final gnoll's neck. She Prestidigitations it clean.

"Yes... that might have been unfortunate," Safiya admits. "Let's go backstage and see if we can find Lienna."

Lienna isn't backstage, but there's four captives being held by two gnolls in the dressing room. They're made short work of, and one captive who appears to be the director of the group, a dwarven woman, claps her hands. "A more timely entrance I have never seen in forty years of theater. I'm Magda, the director of this theater. Lienna told us you'd be coming, though she said nothing of slaying Red Wizards, nor of saving our lives! That Red Wizard wasn't alone... there's more of them, and they've followed Lienna into the back rooms."

"Okay. We'll go after them and see what we can do. Is there a key or something that we might need if they've locked the doors behind themselves or... something? And do you have a count of how many more of them?"

"I counted three of them... plus a couple of demons, or devils, or something like that."

"All for one old woman," Safiya says with a tone that indicates more disgust with the waste than the attempted murder of an old woman.

"Lienna is no simple theater matron," the dwarf says. "She has a secret - a shadow door that leads to some kind of reflection of the Veil. She fled through the shadow door, I'm sure of it. Still, such tricks won't stop the Red Wizards for long. Here, take this stone; as long as you've got it, the portal will open for you, and you'll be able to follow her."