"Out and up, then? Perhaps we can find what's supposed to be there from the surface. And definitely not fight them now with only the four of us. Five, but my friend isn't the best at fighting."

"That's the plan. I should be able to match the sewer to a surface map. Ideally we'll return with a few squads and a wizard and end this nonsense."

Navarro takes them back the way they came, past the reservoir and the collapsed cave-in, up both ladders and onto the street. They leave the Shingles and Bridgefront without issue. It's a bright and sunny afternoon as they cross the bridge from Old Korvosa to North Point. From there is the long walk down to the south of Midland where Citadel Volshyenek rests.

It is a bright and sunny afternoon. That's a little strange, isn't it. In the vision, this was the day Eodred died, killed by Glarataxus in an attack from out of the fog. And there was fog. There is a distinct lack of fog today.

Well, she knew weather was controllable. Glarataxus might be able to, and even if not, whoever it was who stole her from the Bank in the second vision maybe could. It's not news that the conspiracy has weather control, just good to note. (That's... sixth or seventh circle, maybe? Mother might have mentioned a smaller wind control spell at fifth circle in some domain, and Control Weather is bigger than that. Also teleport wizards definitely can't all do it, so it must be at least sixth. How many seventh circle casters can there be in Korvosa anyway... Hiding your circles is easy if you really want to, there could be several.)

Also that means her visions of the days after this are no longer reliable, but that was true as soon as King Eodred didn't die. If anything is going to have an effect, that will.

They walk through the doors of the Citadel and arrive back in the planning room. Navarro leaves to meet with his superiors in an urgent debriefing.

Twenty minutes pass in relative silence.

An armored guardsmen Tencednil doesn't recognize walks in. "You're Detective Navarro's squad?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. The three of you need to come with me. We've an operation to plan, and you're part of it."

He takes them far into Citadel Volshyenek, up multiple flights of stairs. They enter into another planning space, this one full of guardsmen and assistants. The ambient discussion is quite loud.

"How many does Bridgefront have? Can they spare marines? Which access tunnels are unblocked—"

Navarro notices them walk in. "Ah, you've brought my squad up, captain. Thank you."

"We need all the help we can get right now." The captain turns to Shadi. "Chosen, I've sent a runner to the Church. Hopefully they will send us more clerics." 

"I expect they will. Urgathoans are a blight."

"As was whatever they were dumping in the water. Could have been a poison, could have been a disease, but it wasn't good for the residents. Has anyone asked the otyughs if they have an idea what it's doing? Surely a Fox's Cunning to improve their analysis and conversational abilities isn't beyond the means of the guard. They do eat the stuff, they probably have some sense for it."

"Casting fox's cunning on an otyugh... that might work. I'll go ask if our wizard has any open slots left."

He makes his way back across the room and speaks with a man in simple robes.

Navarro walks back over and sighs. "I'm afraid he wants to keep his spells combat focused. Understandable, given the circumstances."

She didn't realize the guard was quite that under-resourced. Maybe there's a reason she was necessary for this. "Perhaps tomorrow, then. What do we have actually, if we're going to be assaulting a potentially large cult with an unknown number of clerics who have been actively animating ghouls? I would expect some wizards as well, though I'm sure the Pharasmin knows the standard breakdown of Urgathoan cults better than I could guess."

"We have whatever clerics the Church of Pharasma will send us. I'd expect three or four more, after Shadi. We've requested a squad of Sable Company marines. We have two wizards with open spells, one at third circle and one at second. We have our guardsmen. There are at least six cultists down there; we don't know how many are empowered."

"Hopefully they were releasing the undead, not animating them themselves. A sixth circle cleric is beyond what we can expect to defeat. Even so, they may well hold more concentrated casting than we, some Silences would be useful if any of the respected Pharasmins have it prepared today. Has there been any word of zombies or skeletons in the area? They do tend to be spotted, so if there were none the cult may not have a cleric between third and sixth circle. Onyx isn't hard to find."

"We've not had any reports of zombies or skeletons in the area. A runner pinpointed our underground position to a warehouse at the edge of Bridgefont. We should be receiving a warrant from an arbiter soon."

"We can hope, then." And she will hope the guards aren't too human to actually plan things decently, because she doesn't have the time to go through all their information.

Over the next twenty minutes...

A squad of four Sable Company marines—

A dozen more guardsmen—

Four clerics; three of Pharasma and one of Sarenrae—

And one more wizard enter the planning room.