Tuesday, October 27th, 1671
Manchester, England

Despite having been attacked by a small group of unusually large and vicious wolves on their way to Manchester, the heroes arrived in the city safe and sound where they are ushered to Sheriff Johnson and Vicar Carroway. Both congratulated the group on a job well done in clearing Lichfield of its vermin problem, but the reward had changed.

It had been so long since the original reward was posted, that King Charles II had offered the additional reward of an official title to those who could free Lichfield, and to collect it, the party would need to travel to the Palace of Westminster. The Sheriff hired a carriage for the party, but Al-Hassan refused to travel on. He'd been changed by the battles in Lichfield and swore off the reward, instead deciding to leave England and return to his homeland. The others wished him a good journey and boarded the carriage, soon to see the shining city of London.

After a few days of leisurely travel, the party arrived in London and were immediately whisked to Westminster Palace and presented to Lord Rothman. The noble looked over the party with a sneer and informed them that their reward ceremony was scheduled for the next morning. He then provided them with a writ that would allow the group to stay at an inn at the pleasure of the Crown, and another to get a fresh change of clothes at one of the many tailor shops that lined the River Thames, strongly suggesting that all four get themselves cleaned and presentable before they were to see the king.

And the party did just that, spending a relaxing afternoon getting fitted for fine new garments at the king's expense. As they left the shops to look for an inn however, the dockside exploded in a terrible conflagration.

Chaos reigned in the streets. Alphonze pulled a child to safety from the shadow of a collapsing building while Jack, Nicholai and Regidiah administered aid to the survivors of the blast and assisted bucket men in putting out the many fires the began to fill the streets.

It was Jack's sharp eye that caught a group of men, standing apart from the others, and then jump into the Thames. He alerted his fellows and they rushed to the site and peered into the murky waters of the river.

They saw nothing, but Jack dove in, and quickly discovered a small underwater tunnel that led from the river to beneath the streets of London itself. He called out to the others who abandoned their long-forgotten parcels in the streets and followed him into the river.

Finally, they surfaced in a small cave stocked with several barrels, but were attacked by the group whom Jack had spied before. During the battle, the heroes noticed that these weren't truly men, but rather some kind of strange creature meant for life beneath the waves. The party triumphed, slaying the last of the beings, and discovered two very confusing things on a small table in the cave.

One, a pot of coffee was there, and mysteriously hot despite a obvious way to get it there. The second was a set of plans showing a series of underground passages beneath what appeared to be Westminster Palace, and what appeared to be markings. Nicholai, searching elsewhere called out in fright as he opened one of the barrels to discover it was filled with gunpowder. It was clear that these creatures meant to destroy the palace, killing the king and the parliament with it. They had only scant hours to stop the plot.