Asking around

You spend the morning at your usual haunts working your usual contacts. A network like this is an inevitability for all but the most unlikeable of professional adventurers and so you have plenty of options.

The earlier parts of your day take you around your old martial haunts; the shops of a few sympathetic weaponsmiths, the favourite Inn of vetrans from the Iondrian crusade and of course, the town's adventurers guild. In these places you buy drinks, eavesdrop and grease a few palms.

From your investigations you learn some interesting scraps:

• The master Dwarven weaponsmith, Stordolin Blackbraid, has been seen about town in their hood. They are a known adherent to the Dwarven Deep God of smithing and so have rarely been seen above ground. Their presence in the city is therefore notable. Your contact suspects they are here for the exhibition.
• Security at Beluar's House can be expected to be unusually tight. Your contacts inform you that a number of veterans have been privately hired on to supplement the normal guard detail.

Having collected some info you are finishing up your drink at the adventurer's guild when something unusual catches your eye. An extremely pale young woman in a long cape is going between tables seemingly asking something and being rejected. As you watch yet another group waves her away. A longer look reveals she has a piece of paper with the Beluar sigil drawn on it in her hand.