Sessions 2-4: Carnival of Swords continued

The adventurers discovered the source of the green fog to be an old, haunted well in this part of the city. The group went into the well hoping to rescue a young woman who had been abducted that same night before. She was a translator and valet for an merchant family and had been returning home from conducting business when she literally got caught in the fog.

Exploration of the tunnels beneath the well revealed that most of the would-be heroes needed to put a few more skill ranks into the Climb skill, and that the fog demons were a band of lizard men that lived in the tunnels beneath the well. Most of the lizard men were slain, including a shaman who had been holding the abducted young woman prisoner. Amongst the shaman's belongings, they found a strange looking metal jar that detected as powerful magic.

Upon leaving the well, the group was accosted by the city watch, led by a man named Derek Santoro, a constable of some rank in the city. With him was a fellow named Orestes Morgan, a professional sleuth. Over the course of dinner, the heroes befriend the constable, but the sleuth seems to go to some lengths to remain unimpressed by their performance.

The next morning, the group receives an invitation via messenger from someone named Luoch Dellanov. Dellanov requests a meeting with the heroes to discussing buying the mysterious metal jar they recovered. Oddly, they haven't mentioned the item to anyone other than Santoro and Morgan, and that was less than 10 hours ago. Ash goes to Santoro to enquire about this mysterious nobleman, while everyone else pays a visit to a merchant shop called the Veil of Shu, a place that Alanna (the innkeeper) suggested they might get information about the item itself.

At the shop, they meet the two sisters who run it, Jadwa and Tiye Khiftu. They relate an interesting tale about the jar. They first saw it just two days ago in the possession of a traveler who wanted an idea of its value. They examined it carefully and told him to come back later, after they'd had time to research it. The traveler never returned, but the sisters had learned something about the item. It is called the Flask of Omlas, and is an ancient and powerful Elven relic. Given the nature of the elves, that likely meant that the flask was an evil item as well.

In the end, the party ends up selling the flask to the mysterious Dellanov for a sack filled with gems. That night, one of the magic shop sisters, Jadwa, comes running into the inn with a story about having a vision that Dellanov was going to use the flask for some evil task at dawn, which is exactly the time of the carnival's culminating event: the Horned King Ceremony!

Immediately the group devises a plan to be at the site of the ceremony before it starts. An amazing plot unfolds as one of the party is locked in a tool shed, one climbs the ancient oak tree that is the focal point of the ceremony, and the other two hide under a walking bridge. In the end, the group somehow manages to foil Dellanov's plot to disrupt the ceremony, which is an annual renewal of the druidic rites to protect the city. Dellanov, himself a powerful druid, gets away by taking the shape of a hawk, and he takes the flask with him.