The Vrock who captured Ash is rewarded with fresh meat. It gobbles it down and makes a disgusting gurgling-sound-cum-shriek-of-affection for its master.
Ash, in the meantime, is stripped of all his possessions and garbed in an orange jumpsuit of dimensional anchoring. His hands are shackled together. His feet are shackled together. The chains between his hands and feet are shackled together.
The jumpsuit prevents Ash from shifting planes, but unbeknownst to his captors that is not something Ash can do anyway. When he was banished back to his home plane, it took him reconnecting with the astral ship The Sea Ghost to once again depart that plane.
Held in a cell, the dwarf meditates and makes peace with his likely imminent end.
——-
When the Fourth House investigates the possessions it has stripped off prisoner Ash, they are alarmed by two things. Firstly, that the dwarf wields a silver sword that much resembles the silver greatswords wielded by Queen Vlaakith’s elite Githyanki force. Secondly, that they find he possesses a trump card of Alandra de Winter circa 25 years ago.
These two possessions cause Grand Lady Malavox to pause before executing Ash, or delivering him to General Nyneve who ordered the mission.
“He did not get the sword lawfully from Queen Vlaakith,” Petrichor argues. “He got it by killing one of the elite guards she sent against him.”
Grand Lady Malavox eventually nods that she agrees this is most likely the truth. “That leaves us with a dwarf with distinctly purple tattoos on his arms and a trump card of Alandra de Winter from about 25 years ago.”
“So he’s an agent of Alandra de Winter?” Petrichor asks. “I thought we already knew that.”
Grand Lady Malavox frowns. Something still doesn’t feel right. The truth has the unmistakable trademark of making infinite sense from all angles. Pieces are still missing here.
“Dwarves live a long time,” Grand Lady Malavox remarks. “And he’s from the plane that Alandra de Winter spent many years on, many years ago…”
Petrichor arches her eyebrow, interested in the observation of that overlap.
“Maybe he even walked with her back in the day when she made the lanterns. Maybe he’s one of her disciples…”
Petrichor starts nodding yes. “His tattoos are as old as this card,” she hypothesizes. “He’s very close to her.”
“She gave him a card to call home…” Grand Lady Malavox completes the group think.
They both look at each other wondering how they can best use this card against their enemies.