An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
He nods to him. "Aroden. Parmida." Hopefully Aroden has a spell for privacy because he doesn't; if neither of them do they can go to the temple of Abadar that's right near here but that'd be fully sixty seconds of awkward walk and that sounds terrible.
Aroden does, and he casts it right away and then looks Khemet in the eye. He doesn't bother with any kind of honorific, which is possibly rude, but Khemet didn't and also he's so angry. "What happened."
"Two Tayledras scouts who've been working at the Worldwound, Starwind and Moondance of the k'Treva Vale, requested Leareth help them with a matter of magical technique while he was in the palace. He agreed. They went into a shielded Work Room. A few seconds later, an extraordinarily powerful discharge of magical energies ripped a hole to another plane in the Work Room and summoned something through my people didn't recognize from our alarm-spell. When we arrived, Starwind and Moondance were attempting an interdimensional Gate back to Velgarth. I had them killed; I did not have a way to hold them. We haven't opened the Work Room; we don't know what's in there and don't know if we can safely handle it. I do not know if they had co-conspirators. None of the other Tayledras were present in the palace at the time. If you have a way to hold them I can try to raise them."
"I have a demiplane where only my magic can operate. I could easily hold them there; it held Leareth just fine." His fingers tighten around Parmida's. "The Tayledras are the people bound to the Star-Eyed Goddess, no? This - was her plan, I am almost certain. They as individuals should have had no quarrel with him."
He looks down. "I attempted to retrieve his body with a Wish. It failed - not because it was badly cast, because there was nothing left to retrieve. I am not sure what is still in that Work Room, but..."
"Yeah. I want to evacuate the palace but I assume Cheliax'll want to talk to everybody who was there and be assured we swept the place for people who are invisible or rodents right now or something so I haven't ordered the evacuation yet."
"I would like to examine the scene myself." Whatever they summoned, he can probably handle it, but it's unclear if there's much point in trying. He can at least try to look inside with magic.
"Of course." He gestures with his palms open. "I am going to stay in Aktun because as long as I am here the worst case scenario is that I have to raise both of you. I will of course communicate to everyone that they should do everything they can to aid you in your investigation."
Aroden nods, turns to look at Parmida, and then goes still again.
It doesn't make sense. He knows how powerful Adept mages are, and - not that powerful. Vanyel shouldn't have been able to do that, certainly not fast enough that Leareth had no time to react.
"Urtho's Tower." He turns back to Khemet. "They were there. And not watched by Vanyel every moment, I am sure. Neither of them could have done this, but a weapon of Urtho's devising might have. If She had ordered they retrieve it."
"Did Leareth tell you that Urtho was referred to during his life as the Mage of Silence? His skill was in casting spells, and especially making artifacts, that were so perfectly efficient that they leaked no magic at all, and thus were undetectable to his world's mage-sight. I am not sure this would also slip past all of our detections, but it would likely have evaded Detect Magic."
"That does seem the natural next step. I appreciate it."
He turns to Parmida. "You should not come to Osirion with me, dear. May I drop you off back in Egorian, to - inform people of what has happened? Vanyel in particular I expect will take it very hard."
"Yes, of course. I think it ought not be widely known, it will just cause panic, but - Vanyel, and Leareth's top people. Ask for Nayoki, she can handle briefing anyone else who should be told."
Aroden nods to Khemet, and Plane Shifts them to his hallway again just so they don't land somewhere random (he hates that), and then from the office he drops Parmida off back in Cheliax before hopping to the winter palace.
At the winter palace they've been told to expect Cheliax's investigators and are thus less startled than they might have been by an old man teleporting in. They offer to show him to the Work Room in question. They didn't move Starwind and Moondance's bodies, and they haven't touched the Work Room. They respectfully request he not touch it either, whatever's in there might be very dangerous.
Aroden agrees. He stands still for a long time, just surveying everything with his many permanent magic-senses. He can't sense any powerful magic on either of their bodies, but of course he wouldn't be able to, now. And if he's right, would have failed to detect it even if he had been there at the time.
Then he casts Clairaudience-Clairvoyance and aims it at a point a couple of yards past the closed Work Room door.
The room is packed with - what seem to be tiny summoned creatures, he can't tell exactly what they are given his lack of any magic senses but they're mostly eyes and teeth and wings strung together without enough body plan to hold it. They're black and very unpleasant looking and also swarming, as though angry at their entrapment.
He gives a brief, toneless description to the watchers. "You are very lucky they could not get through the room's shielding. Is there a crystal ball I might use for a closer magical inspection."
Aroden watches for a while.
"I do not recognize the summoned entities, but they meet the description of some type of demon summoned from Velgarth's Abyssal Plane. I had wondered if it were the same as our Abyss but I lean towards not. In any case, my understanding is that the Velgarth type of summoning creates a construct-body of magical energies which fades out within about a week. I think the easiest way to deal with this, since there is no body left to retrieve, is to let time do its work, and scry it again next week to see if it is clear and can be opened."
He spends a bit longer trying to get a look at the artifact itself, but he can't find its magical signature between all the stupid tiny demons. It's possible they ate it, or that the violence of the artifact being used destroyed it.
He would like everyone in the palace questioned, specifically regarding their interactions with Starwind and Moondance - including, if possible, anyone who met and spoke with them a month ago before the war, when they first arrived. And, sure, he'll Speak with Dead the corpses for now and then decide if he wants them raised.