The squad works their way up the Heights. They reach the muster point soon enough. They're joined by a host of other guards and they all push forward into Citadel Crest.

Sigh. They do. And she follows. She would be keeping an eye out, but any actual risk here will be from an archmage duel. If something happens, it will be in an instant from the sky and she will never see it coming. She still spares a little attention for the streets around them, but mostly she just tries to stay with the group and focuses on figuring out what sorts of things could cause the flash and bang.

The damage gets worse the further into Citadel Crest they go. Glass is broken instead of merely cracked. Buildings are damaged. There's loads of people out on the street. Some people are lightly injured.

There's many notable buildings in this area, but only one is of political or military importance. It's obvious to the Guard who must have been attacked.

That... would be a way for an archmage to disrupt the Asmodean plans. She was expecting something dramatic but not destructive, some grand use of magic to bribe the Houses away from supporting Cheliax. Why did she assume that? Of course it would be easier to just murder the Chelish presence in Korvosa and make it clear that they can't come back.

Well, it is what it is. At this point, she just gets to clean up after them.

Their destination is not much further ahead.

The streets and buildings become more and more damaged until all that remains is rubble. The Temple of Asmodeus is simply gone. An enormous hole in the ground empties into the Vaults below.

Almost everything flammable is on fire.

Once they reach the point where buildings are collapsed, she slows.

"Some people will be trapped! Do we have time to help?" This will conveniently not require her to get closer to whatever is going on at the center until after it's been checked by other guards. It is also probably true, however much that matters.

Captain Paras nods. "That should be our first priority. We're no match for whatever did this."

He leads the squad into one of the crumbling buildings.

There's some people buried beneath the rubble. It's unclear if they're all still alive.

At least he realizes it.

She is totally useless at moving rubble off people, and none of her spells will do anything to change that. She starts by setting up a Message for the entire squad, so they can coordinate through her. After that... Lhín can point out some places where rubble is at risk of collapsing further on someone trapped beneath it, and she tries to shore that up and keep the trapped humans calm. No need for them to panic and make everything worse on themselves, and she can Message them without needing to shout over the chaos. Speaking she is good at.

Working together, the guards are fully capable of moving the rubble. They try and get everyone out without injuring them further.

Clerics begin to arrive. Some of them channel to heal the injured. Some of them throw create water at the flames. There's not yet enough to hold the fire back completely.

A few minutes pass. Unnaturally quickly, it begins to rain.

That was... about ten minutes since the explosion, not about twenty. Someone had a Control Weather active in advance.

Today was predicted to be somewhat stormy. Casters do sometimes Control Weather to clear the harbors, if the predictions would leave it risky to approach the port. This is still remarkably convenient, though it could be a coincidence. Of course, she knows House Ornelos was the most likely suspect here anyway, and the Headmaster of the Academae — with its just-demonstrated high-circle transmuter, at least sixth and possibly seventh — would be able to ensure a Control Weather was set in advance and would have every reason to do so. Even more pointers to Toff Ornelos. She will be quiet about that one, but everyone must be thinking it.

Message the new clerics. "Stabilize needed at position twelve C, you're closest." "Extra hands at ten B, tell me if you can spare twenty seconds." "Lhín spotted one to the side of the hole in three H, get a look at how she's doing." Coordinating takes up an ever-increasing amount of her time as more people arrive to help, and it's clearly more useful than anything else she can manage.

The squad moves as many people out as they can.

The clerics have set up channeling circles outside. Many are already dead. They certainly save lives. They just weren't fast enough.

Within a few minutes the rain has become torrential. The fires are extinguished but working in this environment is much more difficult. Everyone is soaked. Nobody can see well.

It will be fading in ten minutes, then. No reason for it to stay if the fires are out. 

...but the Vaults are open, and there are no longer fires between those openings and the rest of Korvosa. She has a Message link to Captain Paras already. "Is anyone watching for wildlife?"

"I believe there's someone watching. We'll notice pretty quickly if anything comes out."

"Thank you!" And back to coordinating, this time making sure to keep a Message reply link or five open in the direction of the explosion as often as she can, and asking them to reply immediately if anything coming towards them looks dangerous.

The rain fades away and the rescue operation continues on. They won't be done for a long while. Nothing comes out of the Vaults, so far.

The damage is severe enough that all of the buildings adjacent to the temple will have to be torn down and rebuilt. That's going to be expensive. Nobody has any idea what will happen to the ruins of the temple.

She continues to coordinate. Eventually an Abadaran insurance worker who specializes in disaster handling arrives in the area, and after a quick negotiation, Tencednil slips in as her Message assistant, taking direction, passing out instructions, and condensing the current state of things into a usable form.

Having someone who actually knows what goes wrong in these sorts of situations is a relief. Tencednil is no longer overreacting to every minor issue — nobody mentioned it, but it was pretty clear to her when her reactions were useless. The specialist's time is mostly better spent directing their few spells to the right places and giving instructions on proper rubble excavation to avoid dangerous collapses, but she can still take a report and give a few quick guidelines, which is usually all Tencednil needs for another five or ten minutes of proper coordination. She's not doing anything hard, but she's being useful. And humans are bad at things, so maybe they do need her here. (Also she can feel her expanded mind helping. She can track more of the workers at once than she could a month ago, and the careful phrasings to ensure nobody feels underused or ignored come naturally to her. Wishes are incredible feats of magic, but the continuing effects are no less impressive even if they are far more subtle.)

Cheliax eventually does receive a sending. They have an imp spy trained in the usage of wands who lives nowhere near the Temple of Asmodeus. Nobody in Korvosa knows they exist.

The temple has been utterly destroyed. All of their assets in Korvosa are presumed lost. The culprit is obvious. Toff Ornelos has chosen his doom.

Unfortunately, Toff Ornelos is a rather difficult man to assassinate. Mind blank makes magical information gathering impossible and nobody has ever managed to land a nightmare on him. He probably sleeps in a demiplane. Even so, it's very hard to get inside. Nobody outside the Ornelos family has a tuning fork. Without that, your options are gate and limited wish duplicating plane shift. None know for sure what his demiplane is called, nor how many demiplanes he has, nor if any even exist at all. Are you really going to gamble on your ability to identify a specific demiplane out of a set of unknown size?

Toff Ornelos, like all wizards known to the world, has interests outside of his private demiplane. The Acadamae is one obvious target. It's rather difficult to run a school without ever being physically present. It is not, however, their target tonight. House Ornelos is hosting a summit of the nobility of Korvosa. A spy of theirs among the nobility has confirmed he claims to be attending tonight. 

Who do you send to kill an eighth circle wizard?

Another eighth circle wizard, of course.

The summit is hosted inside a magnificent mansion. The door is barred to all not on the predefined invite list. He could get in with limited wish, but that would be expensive, and he would be vulnerable within a domain of Toff's design. He has a better idea.

'Twas the night before the end of the summit, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The lords and ladies were seated at the table with care,
In hopes that Toff Ornelos soon would be there;

The nobility have gathered once again in the magnificent mansion. The air is tense, to say the least. None know what to expect. Will Toff claim credit for the explosion? Is there another wizard of vast power secretly in the city? Has Togomor returned and brought destruction?