Bay Marked by Drow

MAL 16

 * The party went to Ruastin at a forced march. Overnighting at an inn, they were surprised by a drow agent who used some magical netting to immobilize Aler, Bay and Angara and give Bay some kind of magical injection. Bay caused a chandelier to fall in the lobby outside their room as a distress call, causing Red and Adriel to enter the room and eventually release the paralyzed characters. Borrowing Bay's ring of running, Aler and Red ran down the escaping drow despite his signifcant head start and the magical darkness he had invoked, at which point he readily surrendered and returned to the inn with you.
 * The drow agent gave his name as Enzin Ken'rae, and claimed he had been sent on a mission by his house with the orders to "tag the target with an invocation, and not to kill her." He professed not to know what the invocation itself was, only that it was an invocation of the Spider Queen and was cast by a member of his house. He seemed oddly unconcerned about whether the party would kill him or turn him over to the police at that point, or perhaps it was just a show of bravado-- Red and Jon both found the drow's facial expressions extremely hard to read. Asked about whether he was working with Chavalk, he scoffed "Work with demons? What do I look like, some kind of idiot Vel'sharren?" Aler chose not to reveal his identity, instead obliquely hinting that he might be a member of House De'Afin (Vanessa's house) or a surface elf in disguise. The party eventually decided to release Enzin, asking him to take a message to his House matriarch, Talisha, telling her that the alliance between Chavalk and the illithids threatened to bring an invasion of Malachi and that they wished to speak with her about it. Enzin asked from whom the message came, but Aler again declined to say anything; Adriel said it came from the Hunters, and Enzin left, leaving his gear behind.