Gordo

Rask and Freyja stumble close enough that they notice Gordo's body. The pair immediately sobered up and ran to investigate. Hayate shows them the note. Rask, in a fit of rage, immediately takes to the air to attempt to search for Kira. Freyja charges into their room to search for clues. Hayate freezes for a moment, then gets up and starts to search the surrounding area for anything that could point them to who kidnapped Kira.

Hayate finds Gordo's sword about 3 metres away from the body. The sword, covered in blood. Gordo fought, and fought hard. He likely injured at least one of the kidnappers. Scattered around the sword, bolts of cloth and some leather. Likely from the fight. Freyja comes out of the room and runs to Hayate. Nothing in the room was stolen, most of their bags and gear were still there. The beds were made, nothing was out of place. It didn't look like there was a struggle. This leads them to believe that Gordo and Kira were ambushed before they got into the room.

Hayate tells Freyja that he will run back to their inn to call the others. Freyja agrees, and thanks him. She advises that she will stay there at their room and wait for Rask to come back down. Hayate runs off, back to their inn to tell the others.

Hayate gets back to their inn, runs up the stairs, and sees Lyra sitting right outside their door. He tells her something terrible happened, then charges into the room. In the room, Haruki half dressed laying on the bed passed out, and Izel laid across the floor, also passed out. Hayate yells to wake them up, no response. Lyra uses water magic and splashes Haruki and Izel's face with water. They both wake up. Hayate proceeds to tell all three of them what happened. All four of them rush back to Rask and Freyja's room. They leave in such a rush that Haruki is still half dressed.

They arrive at the room. Freyja, sitting on the bed. The dagger in one hand, and the note in the other, tears rolling down her face. She shows the others the note as well as the dagger. Lyra picks up the note and reads it. Izel walks over to Gordo's body, says an orc prayer, then closes his eyes. "Rest in peace, brother. I swear on my clan that I will avenge you!" Haruki grabs the dagger to investigate. He looks at it and sees a symbol on it. He's seen it before. Suddenly, it comes back to him --- it's the same symbol that was seared into Dagan's bodyguard's wrist. But why? Was he unhappy about their performance of the job? Did they accidentally kill the skeleton of one of his deceased relatives? Did he want them to die in the tomb? So many questions ran through his head. Hayate shakes Haruki which snaps him out of his train of thought. "Did you see something?" Hayate asks. "Let's wait for Rask to get back, then we can decide on what to do" replies Haruki. Lyra moves to console Freyja who is distraught.

Around 20 minutes later, Rask lands back on the ground, breathing heavily, and tired. Freyja runs up to him and asks "Any luck?" Rask shakes his head. "What about down here, any luck?" "We found a couple of things, but Haruki thinks he has a lead." Haruki walks over and explains to everyone that he has seen the symbol on the pommel of the dagger before --- on Dagan's bodyguard's wrist when he was handing them the bags of coin. He can't think of a reason why Dagan would want to kidnap Kira, or why he has a grudge against them. All are still and in thought. Hayate breaks the silence and says "No point thinking about it. We should go to Kibou, rescue Kira, and beat the answers out of Dagan." Everyone agrees, then Haruki asks --- "Anyone know where Kibou is, or how to get there?" Lyra explains "I know how to get there, but walking to Kibou would take 2 months. It's the closest human town to the frontlines. We could rent horses, but there are no stables here in Akebono." Hayate chimes in, saying that he remembers seeing a job on the board which was to escort a carriage to Kibou. Lyra responds saying that on a carriage, they could get there in just over 3 weeks. All six of them agree --- they travel to Kibou, rescue Kira, and get their answers.

The next day they grab the job listing from the board, and meet at the designated location. A carriage arrives, with none other than Gerd driving it.