They investigate the sound

Teysa held up her right hand, thumb and index finger curled in. Over the course of many adventures, their party had worked out a complex system of hand signs for use in situations where noise was impossible or a liability. They hadn't used it in weeks, but she was surprised at how it all came back. Unknown quantity of foes, Teysa signed. Weapons ready. Split up?

Aliara signed back confidently. Negative. Lines of sight poor. Remain in visual range.

They crept around the edge of the plaza, trying to keep behind piles of rubble and trash as best they could. From somewhere up ahead Teysa could hear a faint scrabbling noise, like claws on stone. She carefully drew her mace, making sure to avoid clanking it against her armor and giving away their position.

Something lay in the path ahead. It looked a bit like a leathery brown snake. As Teysa watched, it slithered behind a stack of broken crates. She turned to Aliara, who signed a question. Advance?

Teysa nodded and pressed forward. The stack of crates was ten feet away. Now five... now three... she could hear something breathing behind it, a ragged wheeze. She held up a hand. Foe behind that obstacle. I think unaware of us. Attack? Aliara gave her an affirmative and held her daggers in the ready position.

With a war cry Teysa leapt around the corner. There, lurking in wait, were two small, scaly brown creatures. Kobolds! They were facing away from her, and at the sound of her shout they hissed in fear and confusion. Immediately the cry went up all around them. Kobolds hissed and squawked in outrage. It figures. When you see one, there's twenty you don't.
Teysa didn't give them time to get their spears up. She swung her mace in a wide downward arc. One of the kobolds was smashed off its scaly feet and thudded heavily into the crate stack. The other took a glancing blow to the shoulder that made it drop its spear. Screeching in fear it turned and ran in the other direction.

The time for subtlety was over. Teysa could see slitted yellow eyes advancing from cover all around her. "Li, to me!" she called. Both women scampered into the sparse cover afforded by the piles of debris all around them. Not a moment too soon, either. Slingstones began to pelt down like stone hail. Most bounced off the piles of broken stone, but a few stung Teysa in the shoulder or arm. Aliara crossed her arms over her head. Teysa reached down and brushed dirt and scraps away until she found what she was looking for. A beaten strip of copper, about two feet wide and four long, lay on the ground. It looked like it had been torn from the side of a reinforced cart. Teysa dropped her mace and hefted the sheet, positioning it over their heads like an umbrella. The copper strip rang like a bell as stones plinked off it, but none penetrated to hit them.

The kobolds seemed to notice that their plan wasn't working. The rain of missiles slackened off and the little reptilians let out a screeching battle cry. Teysa dropped the sheet just in time to retrieve her mace as the first wave of kobolds charged.

They were small creatures, no more than three feet tall and scrawny. Most were armed with crude spears that were really no more than sharpened metal poles, though a few had wire nets, daggers, even some swords. Kobolds were inveterate thieves, and many of their weapons bore marks of drow or dwarvish manufacture. They surrounded the two women, but seemed **** to actually engage. One kobold hissed and yapped at Teysa, darting forward to jab at her face with its spear. She ducked around the blow and walloped him with an upswing of her mace that sent him hurtling back into the crowd.

"Come on, you cowards!" barked Aliara. They were trying to hem her in with spears, and her daggers lacked the reach to strike back. She kept them in constant motion to ward off strikes but was unable to retaliate. Three of them rushed her at once, two with spears and one with a net. She caught one spear thrust with crossed daggers and twisted around the other, but the net-bearing kobold squealed in triumph as he managed to entangle her arms. Aliara struggled to cut the wires of the net as the other two kobolds closed in.

"Li, drop!" Teysa swung her mace in a wide arc, making all of her foes duck back, then pivoted to face the kobolds advancing on her friend. Aliara ducked into a crouch just in time as the paladin's mace hurtled through the air above her head. The advancing kobolds were caught unaware and scythed down. The net-bearer squawked in alarm and dove backward. Dropping her daggers, Aliara managed to pull her hands out of the net and snatched up spears from her fallen foes. She sprang to her feet and jabbed with both at the kobolds pressing around them. A spear meant for a kobold was short enough to wield in one hand, and she stabbed downward like a fisherman with a trident. She skewered a wriggling kobold on one spear and swung her arm in a wide arc, flinging it off into the crowd. The others backed off warily.

On her side, Teysa continued to batter at any enemy that strayed into her reach. She grunted with exertion as she knocked another kobold back into the swarm. Without warning, the pressure abated. She looked up to see the kobolds falling back a few paces. They still surrounded the two women, but seemed unwilling to advance any further.
A large kobold pressed his way through the crowd. This one was nearly five feet tall and wore armor of copper discs. He carried a fine drow sword and a shield made from the scale of some vast reptilian creature. An unfamiliar-looking skull crowned his head like a helm. The kobolds hissed as he passed, then fell silent.

The champion pointed his sword at Teysa and hissed a challenge. The words were unfamiliar, but the tone was unmistakable. She nodded and advanced. Aliara dropped into a wary crouch and scanned the crowd, but none of them seemed poised to interfere.

The champion started circling, but Teysa moved to box him out. She wasn't going to turn her back to the crowd of kobolds if she could help it. The little creatures had no honor at all, and she had no doubt that they would interfere in this single combat if they thought it would help. Instead, she swung her mace in an overarm arc. The champion made no move to dodge but lifted his shield. Teysa's blow rang off it with a heavy clank, but the champion's arm didn't drop a fraction. He's stronger than he looks. His return strike was a horizontal cut at waist level. Teysa lunged backwards and barely dodged it.

She swung again and her foe pirouetted nimbly out of the way. He aimed a cut at her leg, where the plates were farther apart, and she barely managed to pivot her mace in time to deflect it. The two traded a half dozen blows, each one blocked or deflected by shield or armor. Despite his scrawny appearance the champion wasn't flagging at all, even after repeated shocks to his shield arm.

Teysa gave ground to avoid being encircled by kobolds. The crowd closed in a little bit as she retreated. She went on the offensive, but the champion managed to catch each blow on sword or shield. He looked like he was exerting himself, too, but his movements weren't slowed a bit. Teysa was feeling a bit fatigued. She tightened her stance and breathed deeply to clear her head. With a start, she realized that he had managed to circle around her-- her back was to the crowd. Aliara was nowhere in sight. She had a moment to wonder where her friend had gone before the chief hissed in triumph.

A strangled squawk behind her cut off suddenly, and she heard Aliara's voice. "Tey, now! Get him!" Behind her, Aliara shook her spear to dislodge the kobold that had been sneaking up behind Teysa. The champion took a step back as he realized his ambush had failed, but Teysa was already charging forward. She swung upwards in a massive arc, and he threw his arms out and stumbled backwards to dodge. Reversing the arc at the apex of her swing she crashed her mace down, shattering his skull helmet and the head beneath it.

The kobolds let out a moan of fear and hatred, but the sight of their champion's broken body seemed to sap all of the fight out of them. They fled en masse, some leaving their crude weapons behind. In moments the plaza was empty.
Teysa rested her hands on her knees and breathed heavily. "Thanks for that, Li. Little bastard was tougher than he looked."
Aliara tossed her spears away and went to retrieve her daggers from the tangled net. "No problem. That was a pretty smart move with the copper plate. That evens it out."

With the plaza cleared, they began picking through the crates. It seemed that more than one caravan had stopped here in the past. The place had been thoroughly picked over by scavengers-- kobolds didn't leave anything they could carry if it seemed remotely valuable. After a half hour of fruitless searching Aliara threw her hands up in disgust.

"This is hopeless, Tey. There's nothing here. I can't believe we went through all that for nothing." She sounded disgusted with herself.

"Hold on." Teysa was on her knees, rooting through a pile of detritus. "Li, I've got something. Check this out." She rummaged around at the bottom of a pile of debris and pulled out a sodden wooden box. "Look at this symbol on the side." She turned it so Aliara could see. On the side of the box, barely visible in the rotting wood, was a faint carven image of a spiderweb with a woman's head in the middle. "Think this is from them?" The box was empty, but it shifted oddly in her hands as she hefted it. "Hang on, I think there's something..."

Teysa abruptly smashed the box into the ground. The rotting wood splintered with a wet crackle. Aliara jumped back in shock. "Quz! Tey, what are you-"
Teysa silenced her with a gesture. Among the wreckage of the box was a small, leather-bound book. "A false bottom?" asked Aliara. "Looks like the trash-pickers missed this one." She picked up the book and flipped through it. "Some of this is in Seriny. Look, it's mostly totals of sales and purchases... and some dates... hey, this is a reference to the Matron!" She stabbed a finger excitedly at the book. "This is them, Tey! This must have been Siri'ka's diary!"

"Grab it and let's get out of here! The kobolds will be back soon." Aliara scanned the edge of the plaza nervously. "I think I hear something. We have to move, Tey."

Later that evening, they sat with Dom at the Stone Egg, flipping through the book. It was written in Elvish script, but the language was unfamiliar-- the written form of the drider's speech, Teysa supposed. Dom translated.

"Yup, it has their trip here... and their encampment at the Broken Bank... some trade... looks like they dealt with Quorling and Parr. Wait..." he scanned the text with his brow furrowed. "That's weird. There's one appointment listed for the last day-- says to meet with Mish'li at the Chapel of the Veil of Sorrows. That's it. No sign of if she did it or not."
Teysa closed the book with a snap. "There's our lead. Any idea where that is?"

Aliara nodded glumly. "All of the Chapels are in the same place. The Temple Precinct. Looks like we're heading there after all."