Last time, the heroes saved Téodóir's life from a stabbing. They head down to the vault, and find the door ajar and the alarm going off. That ceases after a few seconds, and more of the staff emerges.
One of them shows the characters how the vault works - there's a sliding panel that contains several switches, which have to be flipped in a particular order to open it. But they aren't flipped at all, meaning someone opened the vault without them. Zook theorizes someone just used a knock spell (simple enough to learn for wizards or sorcerers), and the staff agrees that the vault is mostly for basic stuff - anyone with anything really serious to lock up who also has the money to stay here is more likely to shell out for something more impressive.
But that doesn't help the characters - they discover that Aindriú's box is gone! Dara looks around and finds a blood trail (from the dagger this thief used to stab Téodóir, probably), and then a little ways out of the back door, a bloody rag. Zook fetches Maeve and suggests Dara turn into a dog, too, and the two of them can track this guy!
Dara obligingly goes canine, and Zook saddles up Maeve. The two of them scamper off, while the others get their stuff together and try to determine who this thief was. Téodóir didn't get a good look at him, but says he was human-sized, wearing a cloak with a hood. The heroes start heading out into the city, when suddenly they see a blue dragon swoop in over Cian, spitting lightning!
Let's back up. Dara and Zook follow the scent of the thief through the alleys of the nicer section of Cian, and make good time - Zook spots a man in a cloak carrying a box up ahead. He spurs Maeve on, but the man dips behind a building for a second. Zook rounds the corner and sees the guy, just as the dragon swoops in!
Zook, however, guesses that the dragon might be an illusion - it's too convenient otherwise. He casts blindness at the thief, while Dara catches up, changes back to her natural form, and throws an entangle spell down the narrow alley. The thief tries to cast a spell; Zook counters it, but the man turns and climbs up the wall (nimbly dodging over both the entangling plants and the grease that Zook throws after him).
Meanwhile, the others see the dragon and climb up a building to get a better look, except for Clara, who figures she won't be much help against a flying dragon and runs off to find Zook. Keenan, Fearg, and Aisling stand on a building looking at the dragon. Aisling throws some magic missiles at it, but they don't seem to bother it. She asks Fearg if he can hit it, and he hefts a javelin and says he probably can, but isn't sure what it'll do. He hucks the javelin and it strikes the dragon in the haunch...and then flies right through it! An illusion, indeed!
Dara spiderclimbs up the wall to look for the thief, but finds nothing. Clara arrives and parkours up the wall, but finds only Dara. They both see a small puff of dust at the other end of the roof, and, figuring the thief is invisible, run after it!
They both slide down the wall into the narrow alley, but no sign of the thief. Meanwhile, the other folks are catching up, but they have to get down off a building and run down a few streets, so it takes a minute. Zook hastes Clara, and then sees the genie-box appear in the middle of the alley! He grabs for it, but his hands pass through it ("should've known").
Dara shuts her eyes and listens, and hears something above her. She looks up and sees the thief, not invisible (obviously), but hanging from a notch in the wall, holding the box. Clara wall-runs up and throws a flurry of punches, but only one connects (this guy is fast!). Dara takes advantage of the distraction and thorn whips him around the waist.
The thief is suddenly jerked down to ground level, and the box falls out of his hands. It strikes the ground and one single gem comes loose and rolls away...
...and then the dao stands up, howling in evil laughter. It summons a huge maul from nowhere, and brings it down, twice, on the thief's head, killing him.
"Can you banish it, Zook?" Clara asks. "No!" the gnome replies, "that's what we were going to use the wishes for!" He throws a bunch of magic missles at it, and Fearg rages, charges in, and bashes it with his warhammer. Clara drops in behind it and strikes; it's like punching a bag of sand, but she sees some of the sand fall away from its body. Dara calls down lighting on it, and a patch of its skin turns to glass and falls.
The dao swings its maul and strikes at Fearg (miss) and Clara (hit, and she falls prone, but immediately leaps to her feet). Aisling casts a spell and speaks to it in Terran - "You can just go home! You don't have to do this!"
"There's no plan," it replies, and swings the hammer again.
But the dao is fighting in a cramped space, against a very persistent monk and a very angry barbarian (with lots of spell support). It turns to mist and flows through a crack in the wall, and Dara turns into a mouse and follows. Clara runs around the building to the front door and sees the dao in a tailor shop, the maul above its head. Dara turns back into elf-form, and Aisling and Fearg manage to get to the doorway in time to see the dao bring its hammer down upon the hapless man's head.
The dao flows over to Clara, raising its hammer, but misses its swing and Clara pummels it. Aisling lets fly a bunch of magic missiles just as the dao begins to cast something, and it falls away, nothing left but sand.
The heroes take a breath. The city Strikes arrive and take statements, and the heroes sadly explain what happened and what the box is....or maybe was? It's completely inert now. One of the Strikes recognizes the thief from his clothes. His name is Nollaig, and he's...kind of an adventurer? More of a thief? (Zook notes that anyone can learn some skills, but that's not what makes a hero.) As far as anyone there knows, Nollaig wasn't for hire. All they find on him is a few gold pieces and a knit cap with some metal filigree woven in; Aisling casts identify and realizes it's a hat of disguise. Nollaig was probably trying to break line of sight long enough to use it.
But how did he even know about the box? The only people the heroes told was Séarlas at the wizard college. They decide to pay him a visit (but Zook sends Maeve back to Aindriú with a note explaining what happened, and that the genie is gone). On the way, they stop by a blacksmith to see if they can destroy this box. There's no magic in it, but they don't want someone else trying to bind a genie to it.
The blacksmith (taking the gems in the box as payment, very happily) examines the box, and then says that the has no idea what the metal is. It feels a little like gold, but it's not as heavy. He pours a bit of acid on it and, with no reaction, notes that if it's not gold, that stuff should have at least burned it a bit. Zook opines that maybe it's an alloy, and the blacksmith agrees that it might be, but again, of what? They decide to take the box with them and get more information.
At the wizard college, Séarlas receives them and is disturbed to learn about what happened. He says that he told his colleague Sinéad about the box to get her opinion, so they go and see her. Sinéad says that she didn't tell anyone - OK, well, maybe she discussed it at dinner, but...
The heroes figure it out. This was just a game of telephone that got out of control, and got around to Nollaig, who tried to steal the box. And now two people are dead and the city is in panic because of an illusory dragon. The adventurers, Zook especially, make clear to the wizards that they hold them responsible and suggest that the wizard college take care of the tailor's family (Séarlas, while he doesn't necessarily agree with the assessment of blame, agrees). The heroes trudge back to the Sapphire to talk with Aindriú.
They find him in the common room, absently scritching Maeve's head. They explain what happened and wonder if the death of the genie undid the wishes; Aindriú says he shames to admit but he already checked, and his wealth generator still works. He apologizes for not just making his last wish and letting the heroes send the dao home without violence, and says that he'll take care of the tailor's family. He asks the heroes their next move, and they say that they were planning to go north and look into the strange writings on the goblets they found. They want to ask around a bit, though, both about those and about the box.
Aindriú says that he intends to stay in Cian a while, rebuild his staff, and then head west and see if he can find the grave of his sister, Ailís. If the adventurers would like, they'd be welcome to travel with him. They decide to think on it. In any case, they say, they're happy that Aindriú wasn't consorting with a demon - when they heard him talking to a box, they were worried.
Aindriú, polite as always, agrees that it was a reasonable worry.
