Attack Vector [IC]

[ylvathrall]

The town of Canila seems, at a glance, much like any other such settlement. The road leading in from the east gives you a view of what appears to be a simple, albeit relatively prosperous, rural community. Wooden houses and shops cluster in small groups, separated by gardens, trees, and open spaces. The buildings are well kept, appearing to be in generally good condition. To the east and south, the land is arable, and fields surround the town, growing mostly corn, wheat, and beans. To the north, the land fades into forested hills; presumably this is where the lumber for the town's buildings came from. To the west, you know, the road continues for a few miles more. After that it passes into the Deadlands.

The residents of the town, at first glance, seem to be rather normal. Villagers are out working in the fields, with a few visible in the town proper, mostly working in gardens or doing similar domestic chores. After looking a bit closer, though, you can see that they are anxious, many of them looking around as though they are expecting an attacker to fall upon them at any moment.

You can see the inn, one of the larger buildings in Canila, in the middle of the town. Presumably, this is where you will find the other troubleshooters here to collect the bounty.

[The Hellbug]

The old man pauses to shift the weight of his heavy pack as he reaches the edge of town. His back is bowed by the weight of years, and his clothes are covered in the dust of the road. He takes a good look across the town sprawled out before him, briefly making eye contact with an anxious-looking man until he dodges the traveler's gaze. At the old man's side is a dog of spectacular size, her big head almost coming up to the man's chest (though he does not share the animal's gift of size) before she leans over to sniff at something only she can perceive.

Soon, though, the pair turn to each other and, after some wordless exchange, the man speaks. "I know, old girl, you could practically cut it with a knife," he says, "you think we're getting more than we bargained for on this one?" Silence again. "No, you're right, it's too early to tell--speaking of which, we haven't seen a bounty this vague since that one with the Ortiz fellow; what say we put down some roots at the inn?"

The dog barks enthusiastically, and the man smiles and rubs her head. "Hmph, of course, it's been a long time on the road, we'll see what they've got," he replies with a chuckle before shifting his pack again and heading towards the village center, companion close behind.

[TheOneHawk]

Whistling tunelessly with a mostly finished carving of a bear in one hand and a blackened dagger putting on the finishing touches in the other, Tobias steps out of the forest to the north of Canila and winces as the midday sun hits his eyes. He pauses to flip the hood of his cloak up over his head to shade his eyes somewhat before continuing on his way. "And here we are, Canila." He murmurs to himself as he walks towards the town. "Ain't been here in a bit. Wonder what Pet gone and got herself into now." He grins at the thought of his little sister and quickens his pace a bit. "Mentioned meeting me in the inn in that mirror... thing she did, didn't she. Best be starting there." He continues, only stopping his one sided conversation once he's actually in the town proper. Once there, he strides confidently towards the inn and throws the door open, fully expecting to see Petronia there waiting for him. When she is not, in fact, there, he rolls his eyes and heads over to a table in the corner. He drops heavily into a chair facing the door and leans it back onto its two hind legs as he puts his feet up and calls to the barkeep, "Glass a' mead over here if ya don't mind,
barkeep!"

[QuidEst]

Cal was just happy to be off the road. For all the training he still did to keep in shape, there wasn't a great deal of travel, and he'd managed to forget how unpleasant it was. Leaving town for the first time in a while also meant getting to see everyone's side-eyed stares again. It was probably his bandaged and heavily ensigiled arm, but he preferred to think it was an air of regal dignity he carried about him. He also preferred to think of himself as the close relative of some wealthy noble who provided him with a lucrative sinecure and some lab space to keep him out of the way, because that was also a pleasant daydream.

While the inn hadn't been agreed upon beforehand explicitly, it really was the only possible destination. Cal entered and glanced around. The members of his new team weren't hard to pick out, being the only ones with a great deal of equipment on their persons. He gave a solemn nod of his head in greeting before smiling at them. "Hello! I trust you are also here on business from the Marquess? I am Cal, former student to Mage Arasmes."

[Oneris]

Petra Arisse Ertan fumed from the back of the wagon, figuratively and literally. A cloud of black smoke enveloped the rear of the produce transport from beneath a lacy blue umbrella, giving shady relief to the tubers and turnips atop which she's perched. Despite the girl's melanistic complexion the shadowkin's coloring did nothing to block the UV rays, nor were her similarly shaded clothing suited for protection from the sun. Black: excellent in the shadowy metropolitan undergrowth, not so much in a cornfield.

If her environs were as dark as her mood, there'd be little need for either the umbrella or the floating enchanted stone from which the dimness emerged. She'd arranged for Magical Transportations to deliver her a week in advance and as an official of the State it was perfectly within her right. After all, the locale chosen was relevant to official Questor business - some sort of missing person case - even if her haste was more family matters. That she ended up in a potato cart was the full fault of a certain Mister Langelann who just laughed at her when she arrived, quipped "You can't afford me, sister" and teleported off to lunch. The cheek.

Seven days lumped with various produce later, Petra was feeling much like a potato herself, lifeless and roasting under the sun. The guttural call of "We're 'ere! Now geroff!" was the most welcome sound she'd heard in a week.

"We're off, Chess, pack your bags. And I advise you for gods' sake don't let him see your handiwork; farmers are not so often appreciative of the arts."
She tossed a few gold coins at the farmer for his services and began walking off in the direction of the inn. A cat wearing a fancy chapeau and vest popped out from under a pile of potatoes, several of which had been carved with the faces of celebrities, and rolled its eyes irritably. With a human-like sigh, it gathered up the vandalized goods in its paws and hovered off after its mistress. In his glee, the farmer never even noticed.

---
At the doormat, she paused.
"Now, Petra," she said to herself, "You haven't seen him in years, he may have lied to you, abandoned you, and ruined your life, but he is your brother and sisters should always be civil to their brothers, even if they may not be civil back."
Her mind briefly wandered to the number of famous siblings who did not subscribe to such a code, but their fates were greatly varied and thus that path of thought was abandoned. Taking a deep breath, Petra closed the umbrella and snatched the dimming pebble from the sky, wilting slightly for the seconds that noonday rays hit her unimpeded. She straightened her demeanor to be cold and determined and stepped through the door.

---
Inside the inn, the fetchling girl had eyes only for the other one of her kind. She spotted him easily, strode over and slapped him full across the face.

"TOBIAS ERTAN!! How simply dare you!"

So much for being civil.

[The Hellbug]

Sidon enters the inn and lowers his pack to the ground with a grunt, Mab close on his heels. "Find us a spot, girl--that corner looks nice," he orders and begins to make a beeline for the bar, but a whine from behind him stops him part way, "I always said you have more belly than brains. Have I ever forgotten you before?" Rebuked but satisfied, Mab easily lifts the old man's pack and heads for the table he had indicated laying her heavy head on the floor and watching her master expectantly as he carries out his task.

At the bar, Sidon spares no time for pleasantries. He pulls a scroll out from his belt, unfurls it, and lays it on the counter. "Two things for me, barkeep," he requests, sliding the bounty paper forward with a pointing finger, "food and ale and whatever you know about this"--his other hand goes for his coin pouch to jingle it temptingly, but the strange man with bandage's introduction interrupts him, and he scoops up the note and motions to the other bounty hunter that it will be a moment--"actually, the second thing can wait, but I'll still need that ale and a triple portion of whatever's hot. I've got the coin for whatever your askin'."

[TheOneHawk]

When Petra walks into the inn, Toby's face splits into a wide grin and he stands up as she approaches. "There you are, Pet!" He calls, "I told ya I'd be back!" He remains unphased even as she tries to slap him, casually catching her hand and pulling her into a bearhug. "How simply dare I what, Pet?" He chides, "How simply dare I walk halfway across the country to come see you on a moments notice?" He gives her a quick peck on the cheek then pushes her out to arms length, continuing "Now what in the world are you doing out in this neck of the woods, city girl that you are?"

[Oneris]

”How dare you– mmph!”
The attempt at an assault had thrown Petra off balance and she careened into her long lost brother’s embrace. Why did I ever think that was going to work? She thought dryly, face muffled in the smell of sweaty leather and well oiled metal. Even as children Toby could always throw her around like a rag doll. Once when she was 10 he once picked her up and put her on top of a bookshelf, declaring that if she liked books so much she should live up there. ((It took her pulling every book off the top levels and dropping them all to the floor to create a pile high enough to land on. They both got grounded for a month for that one))

“You are not back!”
She growled, struggling to free herself from his arms, even though a secret part of her didn’t want to.
“This locale is half the country away from being ‘back’! You have done absolutely nothing to assist in coming ‘back’, much the opposite in fact; I had to initiate contact with you!”

It generally took crossing quite a few lines to get Petra worked up from her usual state of ennui. Tobias Ertan spanned them with a flying leap that could have cleared the Inner Sea.
“Were there a competition for inconsiderateness you would certainly not be left unmedaled! Why am I here? Doing YOUR job! No word, scarcely a note! Have you any idea the grief you've caused our parents, and me? I had an offer of apprenticeship! From High Mage alKharid!”

Petra really was getting quite worked up now. Every trace of composure had fled the path of a burgeoning flood of emotion much greater than the simple facade of righteous anger. And at the flood's vanguard, shining tears began to bead at her eyes - she hadn't cared enough to cry for many years.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby's grin falters for a brief second at her tirade, but he quickly recovers and pulls his sister back into his arms, quietly cooing, "Shh, Pet, shh." He holds her silently for a moment, then sighs and continues is a much sobered voice. "I had to leave, Petra, or I'd have been killed. Even today if I showed my face in Kutno I doubt I'd last ten minutes. There was nothing more I could do for you."

[The Glyphstone]

Henry didn't so much walk into town as roll there - or at least, that's what any outside observer would have assumed. He was short and stocky by nature, and that was before you took into account the swollen belly pushing out the buttons of his vest. It was a first impression he had used to great advantage in the past; bandits rarely expected the fat man walking alone to fight back, and they never expected the 'fat' to spontaneously transform into a fleshy monster alongside him. The loose clothing also helped hide his extra arm, when he wasn't using it to carry anything.

Pausing at the edge of the buildings, he took stock of his supplies then eyed the town ahead. Very...provincial. Highly doubtful they'd have anything truly good to eat here this far from a city, but he had been in worse places. It was worth putting up with, considering how close he was to finishing his work. The payoff from this bounty would cover the basilisk spleens he needed, and then he'd be ready to brew his greatest creation. He would show them. He would show them all....

After dinner. Walking was hard work; the fact that his 'potbelly' was a sapient creature in its own right didn't stop the tumorous critter from being even lazier than he was, and it was heavy to carry around. He headed to the inn, making his way around a pair of fetchlings arguing with each other about something, and plunked himself down at the bar. "A full meal, if you would please. Meat, bread, cheese if there's any to be had, and a bottle of wine."

[Oneris]

”Killed? Why would you not tell us? Mum and dad wouldn’t let their only son get killed…”
She trailed off, realizing the most probably cause of such a hasty and untelegraphed departure. When she resumed there was a quaver of fear in her voice.
“You-you didn’t badmouth the Crown, did you? Mum always said you were two times too reckless. The Crown’s flaws are patent on its face and need no mentioning.”

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias's grin returns and he lets out a loud guffaw. "No, no, nothing like that. Shouldn't have been a big thing at all 'cept for bad luck. Had a few too many drinks at the Puzzled Cat one night and got in a bit of a scrap. Turns out I bloodied up one of the Order of the Falcon's kids real bad and his da came down on me real hard." He pushes back the hood of his cloak and points at the stump of his left ear. "Most of me made it out, but not all. Not worth my life to put myself that close to that lot again, though."

Bluff: [roll0]

[Oneris]

Petra scowled. Schoolchildren have failed exams over fewer things that didn't add up, and -
"Nice try, Toby. But your 'tell' of when I see through your schemes is showing. No matter, Kutno's a hundred miles away and we're together again. Matters of your homecoming can wait. For now, I think it's time you take on some of that responsibility you've shirked for the past decade."

She smirked, then sidled off towards the bar, where she flashed an important looking badge at the bartender.
"I am a royal official sent by His Majesty King Casimir, first of his name, charged with the task of investigating the missing persons case. I request you turn over all material you have as well as provide what assistance you are able. "

[QuidEst]

Cal stood by awkwardly as the two siblings hashed out… whatever that was. Rather than waiting for that to sort itself out, he joined the others at the bar. "Hmm. What's the inn's specialty?" he asked, preferring to at least consider the local favorite. He looked over at the man with the dog nearly as big as him. "I'll hazard a guess that you're also here on business. I am Cal,
former student to the Mage Arasmes," he said, proffering his unbandaged hand to shake.

[The Hellbug]

...and he had been hoping to put up his feet for at least a moment before getting to work. Sidon sighs before turning to return Cal's handshake. "Sidon, and you guessed right, but I don't know how much I can help you," the old man replies, "all I know is what's on the bounty note, and that's not much. Actually, I..."

Sidon's irritation at the two lovers quarreling in the middle of the tavern had been rather minimal until the woman started making demands at the bar. With that lack of respect though, he breaks from his introduction to turn to the fetchling. "If you've got time to bicker like an old couple, you've got time to wait with the rest of us," the former lawman points out aggressively and gestures toward the barkeep, "can't you see the man's busy already?"

[ylvathrall]

"Don't much matter," the barman says, continuing to go about his work seemingly without being concerned at all by Petra's demand. "I got stew to turn over, and bread, and there's a haunch of venison roasting. That's about all, and you're paying for it."

So saying, he begins calmly serving out food. Sidon's setting receives a very large bowl of stew, a thick broth with beans and potatoes in it, and a slab of roasted venison. The ale is clearly a local brew, dark and strong; it looks like you might have to chew it before swallowing. The slab of bread set in front of Henry is similarly dense, heavy wheat bread that seems like it could be used as a building material. There is indeed cheese, a sharp goat's milk cheese, and venison; the wine is a cheap and otherwise unremarkable vintage. The mead he offers to Tobias is another local brew, one that smells sweet and strong.

Notably, he does not offer anything, either in the form of food or information, to Petra.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby smiles and thanks the barkeep for his mead, taking a long sip as he watches Petra get more and more irritated the longer she is ignored. Missing person's case, eh? Guess she got stuck with that Questor job after all. She ain't gonna make much headway out here talking like that, though. He puts his drink down and heads over to the barkeep. "Lovely brew you have there, my friend. Now, I hear there's been some kinda disappearance round these parts recently, you happen to know anything 'bout that? I'd be much obliged." He says quietly, then subtly slips a silver coin to the bartender.

[roll0] sleight of hand so that only the barkeeper sees the coin.

[ylvathrall]

The barman takes the coin without comment, smoothly palming it and slipping it into his pocket. "Really don't know much," he says, shrugging. "Girls been going missing the past month or so, think it's thirteen of them now. Lord sent some soldiers to look into it, but they were gone before long. I reckon they deserted and it ain't like I can blame 'em."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby tilts his head at the barman's tale. "Just girls you say? Interesting. You happen to know any relatives or close friends of any of 'em? I'd wager a few distraught parents came in here to drown their sorrows, be best if we could talk to them."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon thanks the bartender when his food comes out and leaves a few extra silver coins on the counter when he retreats to the table Mab is still staking out. The dog sits up as the old man approaches, tail thumping excitedly against the tavern floor. When Sidon puts the plate with the venison on the floor, it is only his voice that stops her from wolfing it down immediately. "Ah ah ah," he chides playfully, unsheathing a dagger from his belt and bending down to cut off a small chunk, "oh, don't look at me like that, it's just a little taste."

He licks the grease from his fingers before taking a swig of the ale, beckoning to Cal to join him with his other hand as he sets it down with a contented sigh.

[ylvathrall]

"Aye, all of them I can think of were girls," the bartender says to Tobias. "I reckon the best you could find would be Sarah Kilian. The last one to disappear, Malina, was her twin sister. Sarah don't come around here much, but I'd wager it wouldn't be too hard for you to find her."

[The Glyphstone]

Henry eats his meal in silence, but with eyes intent and ears listening keenly to the discussion at hand. Every detail about the disappearances would be useful; he already knew there would be other people pursuing the bounty. Thankfully, it seemed that they weren't all as bull-headed as the Questor agent - a useful sort when you needed a blunt object to hit someone with, admittedly. For his part, Henry was decidedly unimpressed by what the locals considered wine, but he was smart enough not to say so out loud.

[QuidEst]

Cal sat down with Sidon after paying, starting in on his food. He kept listening to what the bartender had to say, as sickening as it was that things had gotten to this point. Thirteen girls? And over a month, for something like one every three days. That was what, feeding? Maybe, but it was a picky eater. Sacrifices? Those usually wanted power all at once, rather than spreading out the cost- and despite what the lurid bardic tales of heroic rescues would lead one to believe, there weren't a lot of rituals that insisted on sacrificial maidens. He sighed and shook his head. This was extrapolating from insufficient data. "Been in the business long?" he asked the old man to keep his mind from circling back on a puzzle he didn't have the pieces for.

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias nods at the barkeep and thanks him quietly before turning to Petra. "See, Pet?" He says, "That's how you ask a question and get an answer. Didn't they teach you anything 'fore they sent you out here?"

[The Hellbug]

"Longer than you have, I reckon. It has to have been, what, about 5 years on the road now?" Sidon answers between bites of his stew, but he is only half interested in this sort of conversation. The barman's words are much more interesting at the moment. Thirteen? he shares with Mab, who, for her part, is much more interested in her meal than any sort of conversation, more than I thought. No more hope that it's just deserters and a thief or a couple running off in the night.

"Arasmes? That a name I should know?"

[Oneris]

Petra bristled at the barkeep's obvious disregard for her inquiry. Sure that was the standard reaction whenever she tried to pull rank, but situations generally were not so dire as a month of weekly abductions. And of course the old bounty hunter came to the immediate defense of his dinner in a show of that typical mercenary self-interest. She didn't like to admit it, but those tales of bygone Questor gallantry had succeeded on impressing upon her some measure of civil responsibility.

Just as she was about to give them a piece of her and likely every potential grieving parent's mind, Toby stepped up to the plate, effortlessly demonstrated exactly why his hasty departure from the force was so devastating, and turned back to his irritated sibling with a teasing smile. Petra bit her cheek.

"No, Toby. They didn't. I had 2 weeks to vacate my dorm at the Intelligentsia before they assigned me as an intern. I, unlike you, had to learn on the job, and when your 'job' is collecting taxes, you don't get much opportunity to exercise that dazzling Questor charm.
Sensing she was going back down an already traveled path, Petra closed her eyes and counted to ten, willing her rising temper to bide a while longer.
"It's fortunate that least you've not let your skills rust. Well, do you wish to follow up on this lead with me, or shall you dine first also? I'm sure our perpetrator will gladly await our satiety before embarking on further misdeeds. "

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias shrugs and grins at his sister. "You ask that like I've read whatever case file they gave you here. Tell you what, I'm starved, so I'm going to eat. You can fill me in on what the hell it is you're dragging me into and we can see if any of these fine folks," he gestures towards the rest of the room, "Happen to know anything more."

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded, pausing his meal to answer Sidon properly. "Indeed. I am not a traveller by nature, but I've worked with the city watch locally before. As for Arasmes, no, I don't expect so. He was killed about five years ago working to take down a necromancer. With the war, there are many mages of the state who have been killed in service. But I was his student, and since my instruction since then has been… self-directed, it is only proper for me to show respect."

[The Hellbug]

"Mmm, sorry to hear that," Sidon replies, tough more as a formality than having any real meaning behind it. The venison, of course, is already gone, and there will only be moments before Mab's attention drifts to the bounty hunter's stew so he takes a few quick bites. "Not a traveler, though?" he pries and then gestures to the note again, "something special about this one grab your attention, then?"

[Oneris]

Petra shrugs back. "At this point, you're the more informed of us here. I heard no rumors on the road, as many travelers as there were." She leaned forward to speak in a low whisper. "Do you really feel it wise to trust these soldiers of fortune? As the fortunes dwindle so do tend their principles."

[QuidEst]

"No, not much one for travel," Cal answered. "I took this one for a confluence of reasons, petty matters of circumstance featuring heavily. Now that I've heard the situation, though, the situation itself is sufficient reason. And yourself? I don't know many in the business, so I don't know what to expect."

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias chuckles at his sister's concerns and shakes his head. "Quite a difference between workin' with someone and trustin' them. From the sounds of things, though, whatever's going on out here's already taken out a squad of trained soldiers. To me, that means backup is probably worth our while." With that he takes another swig of mead, then stands up and calls out in a loud voice, "Greetings, gents," He pauses to glance at the woman in the corner,"Lady. Looks to me like there's a few of ya as ain't from around here. If, by some luck, any of you are here about the missing person's case, how's about we put our heads together and see if we can help each other out with it, eh? Anyone that's interested, come take a seat." With that he kicks a chair slightly away from the table to be easier to sit in and drops back into his chair. Glancing back and Petra, he grins and says, "Now, let's see if that works."

[The Hellbug]

"Just call me a concerned citizen with two bellies to feed," Sidon replies, patting his companion affectionately, "that and we're good at it. You'll see. Once we get Mab's nose to the ground, it won't be long before we get to the bottom of this."

The half-eaten bowl of stew soon makes its way to the ground to where the venison previously lay. Just as Mab starts to dig in, Sidon gives his answer to Tobias, holding up his drink and nodding. "We can hear fine from here. But go on."

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded at Sidon, and then to Mab. "I certainly hope so," he said.

Somebody in the center had begun organizing things, so he moved over to sit there and gave a practical introduction. "Calvin Merbeck. I have experience in material transmutations, combat magic, personal combat, and the binding or banishment of spirits." If they knew what everybody could do, their planning would be much easier.

[The Glyphstone]

Henry likewise moves from the bar to the table to join the other bounty hunters, leaving the empty plate behind him. He takes a chair pushed far enough back to make room for his 'potbelly', otherwise giving a very contented air appropriate to having finished his meal. "Henry Heid, alchemist and natural philosopher. Curative tonics and transmutative elixirs are my specialty in the first, and practical anatomical examinations in the second."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby flashes a quick grin a Petra, then pulls a dagger out of seemingly nowhere, an eight inch long dirk with a black handle covered in silver filigree, and balances it by the tip on the end of his left pinky. "Tobias Ertan, knives," he says, then nods at his sister and continues "And this is my sister,
Petronia Ertan. She does... magic or somethin'. I don't ask too many questions. Now, we've got a bit of a lead, but it's not much and the poor girl probably don't want a crowd descendin' on her like that. Anyone have anything else?"

[Oneris]

Petra accompanied her brother's introduction with a smile with more than a hint of grimace.
"I can remedy our lack of leads if these ruralist rumormongers cleave to convention. However, I'd prefer moving to a place more locally-frequented first, if our little luncheon is quite finished."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon pulls up his chair as soon as Mab curls up in the corner, and he can put the empty bowl back up on the table. "Oh, I wouldn't discount those rumormongers entirely," he comments, "they may rarely be true, but I've found it's just as rarely that they're entirely useless. It's where I was planning on starting, anyway. Plus, once we start asking about, if there's anyone here who does know something and wants to help us, they'll seek us out--there isn't any sort of investigation in this kind of town that stays under wraps for long."

"Oh, and the name's Sidon, by the way," he adds for anyone who didn't catch him earlier.

[Oneris]

"My point exactly; if the culprit happens to possess any clout here we'll be fed more false rumors than true. Leads gleaned from passive reconnaissance may be more reliable." Petra silently judged the man's optimism on the willingness of the townspeople to share information for anything less than a few silvers with an acute lack of self awareness.

"As it may, I believe I have a method of expediting this, but I'll need someone to take notes. My memory's not what it used to be..."
She smiled bitterly at her small joke and moved to exit the establishment, but a mysteriously levitating cream cake blocked her path.

The kayal girl tried futilely several times to squeeze past without upsetting the delicate pastry but finally relented and produced a knife to cut two pieces from the confection and two silvers for payment, all while giving the empty space underneath an exasperated glare. The cake tilted dangerously, then floated back and thunked down hard on the counter. A frosting rosette slid down the side to settle in a sad plop. Petra sighed, tossed an extra silver onto the counter, and rushed out the door like she never wanted to spend a second here further, closely followed by two pieces of floating pastry.

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias drains the last of his mead and bangs the empty tankard on the table. "Right, I'll stick with Pet and... help her with whatever the hell it is she has planned. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome, but I figure a couple of us at least should track down this Sarah Kilian girl, ask her some questions. What say we all meet back up here at dinnertime and discuss what we've found. If she's willing, bring Sarah along in case we've got more questions, I'll buy her dinner to sweeten the deal." With that he stands up and follows Petra out the door.

[QuidEst]

"I'll go have a word with our lead if she's willing to talk, then," Cal volunteered. As Petra started to leave, he stood up. "Er, before you go- is anybody here capable of divinations that would benefit from personal effects, descriptions thereof, locks of hair, et cetera? It'd be good to know- I don't want to miss anything important, but I also don't want to trouble anybody getting information that won't be of any use."

[Oneris]

Petra paused on the way out and the pieces of cake nearly smeared over her dress.
"I haven't quite finished comprehending the spell, and I doubt I'll find the necessary foci even after to cast it, but I supposed it wouldn't hurt to obtain some hair, a personal possession, and even a portrait if you could manage. Ideally we'd have that assortment for everyone at-risk in the village, but that's likely to bring us more trouble than it's worth. For now, I supposed we must relent to mere wishfulness that if any further people are abducted, it would be only be people we've met."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon thinks on the two options before the group: the sister is a good lead, but approaching her directly might be seen as meddlesome, and there's nothing that shuts up village folk faster than thinking they're being meddled with by outsiders. Trolling for rumors seems like a good idea, but the fetchling seems to have some sort of plan on that front. And so it is that the old bounty hunter approaches the innkeeper.

"It's been a long road here; what's the rate on rooms?" he asks reaching for his coins, "and another thing: those soldiers the Lord sent, the deserters, I reckon there isn't much more than your place here for a group like that to stay. Can you tell me about them? How many? How long were they here? Anything strange about them?"

[ylvathrall]

The bartender just shrugs in response to Sidon's question."Two silver a night for the room," he says easily. "And yeah, they stayed here. There were five of them, stayed here for almost a week. Not bad sorts, as such things go. Last night they were here they were acting real excited, talking about how they had some new lead. Disappeared the next day. I figured them as deserters." He pauses to scratch his face. "Odd, though...well, there is this. Like I said, last night they were here they were in high spirits. Funny thing, though. One or two of them, between rounds, they looked scared. Real scared, like they'd seen Asmodeus himself on their tail. It's part of why I had them figured as deserters; they were awful nervous for people who'd found what they were looking for."

You have an easy enough time finding Sarah, a sixteen year old girl with raven hair and red eyes from crying. Evidently it's rather obvious that you're looking for her, because she looks up and directly at you as you walk up on her where she's sitting on a fallen log at the edge of town. There isn't anyone else around. "What do you want?" she asks, her voice hoarse. "Come to mock me like the rest?"

Not entirely sure what Petra and Tobias are doing. You can assume that you had the opportunity to cast your spell, though.

[QuidEst]

A little startled at the suggestion, Cal shook his head. "No. That's terrible that people have been doing that…" He sighed, shaking his head again, more out of disgust at how people could behave. Seriously, driving a girl out to the edge of the woods alone like this, with everything else that was going on? "No, I'm Cal, one of the investigators they've brought in to try to put a stop to the disappearances. I'm apologize if somebody has already done so, and I know it's a sensitive subject, but I was hoping to ask you some questions to help in tracking down the perpetrator."

[The Hellbug]

"No indication of where they were going, then? Nothing left behind?" Sidon begins but halts his questioning just as quickly, reaching into his purse and dropping two gold coins on the counter, "actually this might be easier. I'll have a room, and can I take a look at the rooms those soldiers used? I can rent whichever rooms those are for tonight, if that helps."

[TheOneHawk]

Once out it the town square, Toby gives Petra a quizzical look. "Alright, then, what's your plan and what the hell is the cream cake about? I can take notes, but right now all I'm seeing is a crazy green haired girl with a floating pastry following her about!"

[ylvathrall]

"Feel free," Sarah says, with an edge of bitterness to her town. "You can call me a liar like the rest did." She pauses and sighs. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be taking that out on you. You're going to find the freak that took my sister, huh? A faint smile crosses her face, thin and sharp. "For that, I can say it all again. Just do me a favor, all right? If you find this bastard, make it hurt when you take him down."

The innkeeper grabs the coins and quickly pockets them. "That should be fine," he says. "Both those rooms are empty, so you can have 'em. Upstairs on the right, last doors on the hall. Here's your keys." He hands over a pair of keys made out of what appears to be bronze.

[Oneris]

Tobias found Petra under the shade of the central square well, enjoying a slice of cake and counting out pennies. The other slice remained floating the air, slowly digesting itself from the bottom up. She waved her sibling over with a smile that vanished as soon as she registered what he had said.

"It's black, it shouldn't be anything but black. I made sure when I dyed it that it was too dark for any other hue." She took a lock of her hair and looked at it in horror while the pastry remains at her side snickered. "Oh Chess, do stop that. You're no help at all. Now show yourself and come greet my brother. Toby, you remember my pet rabbit?"

What shimmered into view was not quite a rabbit, but rather something more. It still had long white ears, tied about its fancy hat in the shape of a bow, but also short pointy ones, and a face that looked unsettlingly more human than it should. The creature wiped clean on a small handkerchief from its waistcoat pocket and extended a paw, lips curling into a smile wider than its face. "Hailfellow well-met, and must I say: your looks are not at all diminished by your lack of facial symmetry."

At this point Petra had all the materials she needed and was excavating a small hole in the soil with a makeshift shovel, in which she entombed the copper coinage and a small piece of brick. "I am planning on taking a trip down the grapevine, " she explained as she watered the mound with a sprinkle from the well, "and must decide what fruit we plan to harvest. Can you think of a useful assortment of topics that the walls would have overheard?"

[The Hellbug]

Sidon scoops up the two keys and bounces them in his hand thoughtfully before pocketing them and hefting his pack. "Alright, Mab, work to do," he orders, pausing at the bottom of the stairs for her to stretch and trot to his side. The lawman then turns to Henry. "So, Henry was it? Were you gonna join us?"

Sidon and Mab'll be heading up to the rooms regardless of Henry's response. We'll take the door on the left first, if that matters.

[QuidEst]

"No favor at all- I'm counting on a combination of sword and fire, whichever gets the job done," Cal answered, a little grimly. He wasn't a bounty hunter by trade, and the city watch didn't generally ask for his help when they only needed somebody brought in. "I'll take whatever information you can give me, and reserve my questions until the end. If you're willing to stick to the account despite the others, then I see no reason to doubt you."

[The Glyphstone]

Sidon scoops up the two keys and bounces them in his hand thoughtfully before pocketing them and hefting his pack. "Alright, Mab, work to do," he orders, pausing at the bottom of the stairs for her to stretch and trot to his side. The lawman then turns to Henry. "So, Henry was it? Were you gonna join us?"

Sidon and Mab'll be heading up to the rooms regardless of Henry's response. We'll take the door on the left first, if that matters.


"If you don't mind, at least. I'm a fair hand at noting things that might be interesting, and I'd certainly like to get to the bottom of this whole mystery."

Setting aside the remnants of his second meal, Henry follows Sidon and Mab upstairs.

"Shall we canvas one room at a time together, or take each separately before cross-checking?"


Depending on the answer, Henry will either be Aiding Sidon on a check to search the first room, or going to the second room and searching it himself.

[ylvathrall]

"Malina started getting...strange a few days before she disappeared," Sarah says, not looking directly at Cal. "Not, like, in a bad way. Just...she was withdrawn. Distracted. At first she wouldn't tell me why, but we're twins. We share everything. So eventually I got her to tell me that she'd met a man."

She looks up now, meeting Cal's eyes with the faintest trace of tears in her own. "This is where most people stop listening," she says. "But I swear there was something wrong with this. If you were just going on what Malina said, you'd think he was an angel. Handsome, clever, charming, the works. Funny thing, though. If you asked her why she thought of him that way, she wasn't so great about details. She told me that she met him in town, but there's no one in town that looks like him - thin, black hair, wears a black robe. She wouldn't even tell me his name."

"That's the part people laugh at," she says. "Because my sister? She wasn't dragged off by some beast in the night. She was taken by that man, I'd bet you anything. But they don't want to believe that. It's easier to face this if it's just monsters being monsters, you know? Nobody wants to think someone like them is capable of this sort of thing."

The upstairs room that the innkeeper pointed you to is locked, but the key opens it smoothly. Inside, it looks much the same as any other inn room. There are three beds, a desk, a window, and little else. The place has obviously been cleaned, but it doesn't look like it was a very thorough cleaning.

I'll need two perception checks inside. Not putting the contents in here for reasons.

[The Glyphstone]

Peering around the room carefully, Henry spots something odd - the drawer in the desk is partially opened, or more likely not closed properly. He waddles over to the desk and carefully opens it to see what is inside.

[ylvathrall]

Inside the desk is nothing but a folded sheet of paper. Unfolded, it reveals itself to be a crude but recognizable map. Much of it is covered in scrawled notes or markings of unclear meaning, many of which are crossed out. One, however, stands out. An area in the forest to the north of the town has a heavy-drawn circle around it.

[The Glyphstone]

Frowning, Henry takes the sheaf of paper and folds it neatly into his pack, for later sharing. The map by itself is likely a useful clue, and if one of the other bounty hunters happens to be versed in ciphers, they might be able to garner additional clues from the writing.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby blinks and glances back and forth between Petra and Chess several times before replying, "Nah, you're pullin' my leg. That old rabbit musta died years ago and this, uh, this ain't a rabbit, Pet. Couldn't quite tell ya what it is, but I can definitely say what it ain't. Anyways, rumous as may be useful, lessee..." He pauses and rubs his chin for a moment, thinking. "I mean, there's obviously gonna be theories about town sayin' who or what's taken the girls, we should also ask around about any strangers in town or anything of that sort. If we're just rumour huntin', though, what's with the..." he gestures at the buried and watered coins and brick in confusion.

[Oneris]

Rolling her eyes, Petra retorted "Considering I got that rabbit when I was 6 and it was alive at least to when I took ill, that's already much longer than their typical lifespan. Besides, she didn't look like this until about a year ago. And Tobs, you've seen the effect I have on the people. I'm going to endeavor to experience that as little as possible, hence: spell.

Walls have ears and doors have eyes,
Trees have voices and beasts tell lies.

I can eavesdrop on past conversations the stones of this town has heard, but I'll need an idea of what to listen for. "

[The Hellbug]

"We'll see them both eventually anyway; together is probably better," Sidon replies before leading the way into the first room.

Mab puts her nose to the ground, but it's Sidon's eyes that spot the room's irregularities. When he sees Henry going for the drawer, the former lawman approaches the bed to check a suspiciously awkwardly-placed pillow. "Anything in there?" he asks as he flips the pillow over to reveal what it's covering.

[ylvathrall]

Under the pillow, you see two objects. One is a dagger, while the other is a small golden locket. They both appear to be of high quality.

[The Hellbug]

A strange pair of items, to say the least. "Actually, I think I've got something over here," Sidon says as he picks up the dagger and the locket. With one hand he shows the dagger to Henry while he flips open the locket with his other.

[ylvathrall]

The blade is a dagger, clearly of fine make, very well balanced and with a keen edge. A maker's mark on the bottom is slightly smudged with wear; the blade has seen heavy use. The locket, meanwhile, is simple heart-shaped one of gold, on a silver chain. Inside, you see a lock of hair and nothing else.

The blade is a masterwork dagger. You can roll Knowledge (local) to see if you know anything about the manufacturer or not.

[The Glyphstone]

In reply, Henry shows him the folded map with its illegible scribblings and the suspicious circle north of town. "I don't suppose you have training in ciphers? This is obviously telling us to go somewhere, but the writing might clue us in to what we'll find."

[The Hellbug]

Someone had a lover, then? But who?

Sidon shakes his head to answer Henry's question. "No, but maybe one of the others does, a couple of them seemed like they had some book-learning," the bounty hunter replies, "but you're right, we don't need to know what those scratches say to follow a map, and I think I could get us to that place if this here's the town."

"As for what I found," he continues, "this dagger might say more than you might think. See this here mark? I've seen it before. A dandy bodyguard to some noble-or-other. Wouldn't stop talking about her blade was from one of the finest smiths in the capital. If she fought with it as well as she bragged about it, her liege was a lucky man. Anyway, I think it means our investigating soldiers may have been more than they seemed--more than some backwater lord's carls, at least."

"And this--" he hands Henry the dagger and holds up the locket in its place "--well, I think the hair explains itself. Funny pair of items to forget under your pillow, if you ask me. Unless you have some idea now, we can save them for Cal--this seems to be just the sort of thing he was looking for--and put his powers to the test."

"And one more thing," Sidon finally finishes, "Mab, over here, I want you to try to remember this one." He offers the locket's contents to his canine companion, which she delicately sniffs before affirming his order with a grunt.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby shrugs and glances around the square, "I dunno much about magic, but if I were just asking questions myself I'd focus on who's new in town, any strange sightings, what people think caused the dissapearances,
stuff like that. Hard to say where a line of questionin's gonna lead you, though, you start it up and then ask more question's based on what the answers are, y'know?"

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded solemnly. "I believe you, and the only reason I have for not furious at everybody else for not listening is because that would just make the job more difficult." He paused for a moment, considering. "All right, if you are ready, I have a few questions. Did you see the man yourself at any point, or do you have any additional information on him? I understand if you don't. There are also a few things that could be helpful magically speaking. I'm not an expert in this branch of magic, but I'm working with somebody who may be able to use it. A lock of hair, personal possession, or portrait if possible. Also, if there's something she would have had on her person that is distinct, a description of that would be useful."

[ylvathrall]

Sarah shakes her head. "No, I never saw him. That's part of why it bothered me so much. We normally share everything, but she always saw him when I wasn't there. And Malina didn't tell me much more than what I just told you. I don't have a lock of hair, either, but I have a necklace she always wore. It was a gift from our grandfather, before he died. She always wears it, but she...I found it on her bedside table. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a simple silver necklace, but hesitates before handing it over. "I...I'm not going to see her again. Am I."

[QuidEst]

Cal shook his head sadly. "No, I afraid not. Keep the locket somewhere safe- if we need to use it, we'll come to you.
Having access to it is enough, and it will be safer in your care. Can you tell me about when you first noticed your sister's unusual behavior, and when you or someone else last saw her?"

[ylvathrall]

"I noticed her being...odd about five days ago. Last anyone saw her was three days ago, in the evening."

[Oneris]

"Sounds good. Here's some parchment and a pen; I doubt I'll be able to remember this all. And keep interlopers off my back; I can't do much during this and likely little afterwards. Chess, you have permission to veil us against hostiles -but reasonable illusions only"

Petra bent down, waved her hands, and repeated the rhyme over her handiwork. The square suddenly teemed with life only she could see- fervent, spectral and phasing. A pair of housewives bid farewell and departed the square, and immediately were replaced by their ghostly selves beginning their conversation anew.

"Hmm, I supposed I should begin with general order of events: time, last-known location, and names of the disappeared girls. We might be on the cusp of yet another victim." She closed her eyes and let her mind loose to drift in the sea of voices.

[ylvathrall]

The city responds eagerly to your touch, and the flood of images it projects forms a narrative, albeit one which is difficult to follow precisely. The impressions you manage to form from the blur suggest the following:
Malina Kilian, vanished three days ago. The last she was in the city she was leaving to the north.
Ivina Svarovsky, five days ago. The last she was in the city she was outside her home to the east.
Natalie Malik, seven days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the northwest.
Caterina Ryba, ten days ago. The last time she was in the city she was running out to the southeast.
Hanna Marchuk, thirteen days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the north.
Nina Carson, fifteen days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the northeast.
Lilith al-Rais, sixteen days ago. The last time she was in the city she was running to the east.
Marina Davodova, eighteen days ago. The last time she was in the city she was riding to the north.
Drusilla Renata, twenty-one days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the north.
Agnes Zita, twenty-four days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the northeast.
Sonia Carrell, twenty-six days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the north.
Elva Jenssen, twenty-eight days ago. The last time she was in the city she was leaving to the northwest.
Simone Gerard,thirty days ago. The last time she was in the city she was running to the south.

[Oneris]

The words spilled out of Petra in a thousand voices, almost faster than her mind could comprehend. She tried to comment on what she saw but the next vision quickly overtook her.


Perception Info Gather 2: [roll0]
What were the disappeared girls like, with focus on similarities?"

[TheOneHawk]

Toby blinks as Petra works her magic and almost forgets to start writing down what she's saying. When he does start, it's a nearly illegible scrawl, made worse by the speed at which he's forced to note things down to keep up. "Abadar's sake, girl, slow down!" He gripes, but when she shows no sign of stopping he sighs and simply attempts to write even faster, leading to an even greater decrease in the quality of his penmanship.

[Oneris]

1) They were all between the ages of 25 and 16
2) They all had odd behavioral changes shortly before being taken
The eagerness of the city to fulfill her second request caught Petra completely off guard. Evidently much had been recounted of the missing girls' behavior after they disappeared. Snippets of conversation flashed by too fast; difficult for a fresh mind to focus, worse still for one still recovering from the previous onslaught. The images cut into each other and overlapping and blurred, the voices drowning out Petra's own as she attempted to distill the information.

"...only 16, same as my own...unmarried like the/child/turned 20/so young/old maid/not old...she sick-un/un/unbalanced humors..not herself-moodi-pleasea/a/acting strang/strange/odd/different from usual--STOP!!"

She reeled dangerously near the well's edge,but caught herself as the frenzy of images slowed for her next demand.


Perception Info Gather 3: [roll0]
"What strange phenomena have been sighted in the area lately?"

[ylvathrall]

The flood of information you've been getting from the city slows to a trickle as you ask your next question. It doesn't seem as though the spell is failing - the city just has no information to provide.

[QuidEst]

"Thank you for your help. We'll do everything we can," Cal said. "While I still have some more questions, they're about the disappearances in general, and I don't need to trouble you personally about them. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me? Also, if anything else comes up, my team and I will be headquartered at the local inn. It… might be good to check in regularly, under the circumstances." Was there any way to check in with all the potential targets, keeping an eye out for anybody withdrawing? They were pretty new here, so that seemed unlikely to be manageable. People also withdrew because they were scared, and this would certainly do that.

[Oneris]

O...kay. Well that was unexpected. Sure she'd asked the spell to stop, but that didn't mean she wanted the information to dwindle to zero. After a few seconds of staring at absolutely nothing and hearing only silence, Petra willed her mind back into consciousness to regroup.

"Toby, I asked for strange phenomena and apparently to common knowledge there's none. That can't be right, can it?"

Free/Move action: stop concentrating

[TheOneHawk]

Toby blinks at his sister in disbelief. "How in the Abyss should I know, Pet?! If your magic's not doing what you want it to, I sure as anything ain't the one to fix it. Maybe try asking after new folk in town instead?
Try and see what the prevailing theories are?"

[Oneris]

"Crimes are not only committed by strangers; I saw once a neighborhood butcher turn his knives upon his trusting flock. And this is a trade town; we'd get half the caravans in country. But very well."

Petra turned back and once again dove into the fray.

Perception Info Gather 4: [roll0]
"Are there any people with whom the girls had unusual contact in the days before their disappearance?"

[ylvathrall]

You don't get a name or anything specific, but the same image keeps recurring in the images you see: a man in a hooded black robe, face in shadow. The same image shows up repeatedly, though it doesn't seem people had much to say on it. All you receive is the image, alongside nearly every one of the disappearances.

[ylvathrall]

"I will," Sarah says, sounding more than a little scared. "I'll come to the inn by sundown to check in with you, and I won't be alone in the meantime."

[The Hellbug]

"A solid start, for sure," Sidon muses, "but we've got one more. Come on, girl." With that, he takes the second key in hand and moves on to the other door, Mab at his heels.

[ylvathrall]

The other room appears much the same as the first, though even a cursory glance reveals something interesting: a book under one of the beds.

The book appears to be a fairly typical journal, with most of the entries being rather old - the dates suggest most of them were written months or years ago. Without more context, the entries are hard to decipher and largely meaningless. The latest one, though, is dated quite recently - just before the guards disappeared. It reads:

We found some of the missing girls yesterday. Or what's left of them.

When we find the thing that did this, I'm going to make it regret it.

[Oneris]

She couldn't look away. No matter where she turned, there he was, always in the center of her view like a tessellation with no visible seam. There was little question he was involved in the vanishings, though Petra held herself back from outright declaring the figure the perpetrator- it could be merely a manifestation of an omen, or even a rather incompetent guardian spirit. However-
"Why are there no words? How has this creature stilled all lips in a town of this size? Surely there must be someone who has laid eyes on this man and lived with tale intact."


Perception Info Gather 5:[roll0]
"Are there any girls who exhibited the behavior change, but did not subsequently vanish?"

[The Hellbug]

Mab is the first to lay eyes on the journal, and an affirming bark is it takes to get Sidon to kneel down and pull it out from under the bed. "And what do we have here?" he muses flipping through a couple of pages, "a journal, it looks like."

But the bounty hunter freezes when he reads the final entry.

...what's left of them.

"No..." Sidon mutters and, feeling dizzy, sits down on the side of the bed. Mab whines and moves to comfort her master, forcing her big head under one of his hands. He begins to scratch her behind the ear absentmindedly but soon holds out the journal for Henry and looks down at his dog silently.

[ylvathrall]

Once again, the spell returns only silence, and no images at all flash before your eyes.

[The Glyphstone]

Henry takes the journal and studies its contents.

"Well, the bad news there is that we're unlikely to be finding any of the victims alive. The good news is that means we don't have to rush, and can go in with a proper plan once everyone is regrouped. A good plan is always valuable for dangerous situations."

Truth be told, he hadn't expected any live rescues anyways. He'd seen enough kidnappings in the past to know that few victims of intentional disappearances stayed alive past the first day, and this looked to be more of the same.

[Oneris]

"No one at all...?"
Petra ended the vision of nothingness and sat down on the well's edge in a huff.
"Nothing upon nothing upon nothing! Surely the culprit could not have been this thorough."
She was asking reasonable questions as far as she could tell, but still had no further leads that really could be investigated. The notion occurred to her to perhaps attempt again tomorrow when the city has replenished its gossip, but a troubling thought resurfaced from beneath the less-than-deluge of information that came after: the victims had vanished with no more than three days inbetween. There could not be a tomorrow.


Perception Info Gather 6:[roll0]
"Is there any girl currently exhibiting odd behavioral changes?"

[ylvathrall]

It takes a few moments, but a picture forms, one of a girl you don't recognize, with long dark hair and green eyes. Normally shy and withdrawn, she has recently been far more animated, outgoing, and seemingly happy. Long silences and absent gazes, though, suggest something more at work.

Finally, you hear a name: Aurelia Tabor.

[The Hellbug]

"Good news?" Sidon repeats coldly, "girls getting killed, ripped apart, and you say that there's good news?"

The former lawman stands up, Mab whining as he does so. "There's already enough blood on our hands for not getting here sooner so I'll tell you what I'm going to do," he continues taking a slightly aggressive step towards Henry, "I'm going gather up all those other hunters, and we're going to follow that map and put an end to this, before anyone else gets hurt."

Without another word, he steps past Henry and exits the room. Mab gives a sad look at Henry before following her companion.

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded gratefully. "I appreciate it, that's reassuring. I'll get back with the others and see what I can find out. If we head out for work, I'll leave a message with the innkeeper. I can escort you back somewhere if you'd like?" he offered.

[The Glyphstone]

Unmoved, Henry just shrugs and heads back down to the common room. People died, it happened. It was sad, but death was death no matter how violent or gory the process, and getting overly emotional about the whole thing would just impair a logical approach to the situation.

Another bowl of stew wouldn't go amiss while he was waiting for the rest of the hunting party to regroup, either. Or maybe two...snorting, he gave his 'gut' a sharp poke and admonished it firmly through the empathic link. This wasn't the time to be gluttonous.

[Oneris]

Petra's blind eyes widened to the size of plates as a useful morsel of intel surfaced from the mire. She turned excitedly towards where Toby probably was, overshot by about 30 degrees, and proclaimed proudly to a wooden post that she'd identified the likely next victim.
"What luck! We may save a life yet!"

Perception Info Gather 7:[roll0]
"Has anyone else in town or passing through behaved strangely in the last month?"

[ylvathrall]

You see nothing but a vague blur, and the gossip blurring past you doesn't seem to have a clear focus. If there's an answer here, it's one you're too distracted and fatigued to find.

[Oneris]

It was no surprise whatever intel to be gleaned from the last portion of the spell, Petra missed it entirely. Even with the heightened senses granted by the spell, a week's worth of gossip condensed slightly more than a minute is exceedingly difficult to process, and at the end of the spell
she could see little past a scintillating field of phosphene stars and hear little past the sharp whine of tinnitus.

"I-I suppose that's enough human interaction for me today," she slurred as she took a few unsteady steps towards her familiar, who darted out of the way in surprise.
"Brother, your thoughts on our next action? I fear I don't recall much from my reconnaissance; it all went by so fast."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby glances at his sheet of scribbled notes, then back up at Petronia with a bemused look. "Y'don't remember the last minute you spent babblin' mostly nonsense at me? Well, I don't know what to make of half of it, but I wrote it all down best I could. Said somethin' about some girl we could save, that seemed important. Name was... uh... Aura... somethin' somethin'. Tabor maybe? You weren't super clear, seemed right excited though, we should look into that."

[Oneris]

"Well, it was all very quick. I had to make room for the new info out of the old. But now I remember, the subconscious often does.
Aurelia Tabor: rumor has it that she's come out of her shell with little reason to do so, and she's of the right age to be next. With it having been three days since the disappearance of the last, and never more than three until the next...you can see where things lead."
She spoke this from the floor, having given up on catching her familiar and instead jabbed away with a trowel at the damp soil where the spell was cast.

A solo game of Blind Man's Bluff was no fun, as the bun-like creature quickly found out, and it settled down next to the mound peering at its master curiously.
"Gotcha!"

[TheOneHawk]

Tobyias grins and nods at his sister, replying, "On it." He strides purposefully towards a nearby woman and greets her warmly. "Hello! My name is Tobias Ertan, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find one Aurelia Tabor, by chance?"

[roll0] gather information

[ylvathrall]

Sarah shakes her head with a strained smile. "I'll be all right," she said. "You go catch the man that killed my sister."

"The Tabor girl?" the woman says. "Haven't seen her since this morning, when we were both fetching water. She seemed awfully excited about something."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby creases his brow in a frown and says, "That's what I was afraid of. Where is her house,
do you know?"

[ylvathrall]

"Just over that way, as I recall," the woman says, pointing. "Third on the left."

[TheOneHawk]

After smiling and thanking the woman, Tobias turns back to Petra and beckons. C'mon, Pet,
let's go take a look-see," he says, then heads off towards the indicated house. Once he arrives, he knocks on the door loudly.

[ylvathrall]

The door swings open slightly at your knock; it appears it wasn't fully closed. Inside, there is no response to your knock. You can smell burning meat, though it smells more like overcooked food than a funeral pyre.

[Oneris]

It takes a moment for Petra to respond. The emotions of discovering her hard work had likely been for naught came in an overwhelming torrent, a dozen different reactions all working at cross purpose: paroxysm of outrage countered by stunned silence, frustrated outburst locked behind clenched teeth, knuckles white but for her complexion. Her bunny pulled a pocket watch and counted the seconds expectantly, but the payoff ended up to be rather disappointing. Instead of a likely hilarious montage of every reaction manifesting at once, her overloaded mechanism simply shut down, and she just came to in a daze and tottered off after her brother with nothing to say.

[QuidEst]

Nodding, Cal turned to head back to the town square, leaving at a brisk walk. Well, that was some useful information. Hopefully the others had uncovered some more evidence- if not, they at least had a better sense of the pattern that they were looking for. When he arrived, he took a moment to survey the area for any members of the group.

Having no luck, he continued on to the inn to see who'd returned from their investigations.

[ylvathrall]

Back at the inn, it appears that everyone has wrapped up their individual investigations at more or less the same time.

[Oneris]

The smell of smoke rose Petra out of her stupor, which was quite well if nothing else could. She ran in and quickly found the source, levitating the carbonized pieces of food out and onto the table where they sat for a moment scorching the wood before she thought better and replaced onto the floor.

Building looks normal. Smell is coming from a loaf of bread in the oven which is badly burned, and a small meat roast which is the same. Other than that no particularly remarkable features. No indication of the girl's presence. No diary either
"We missed her...but not by as much as from morning, or the building would be up in flames. Should we pursue? She couldn't have gotten far."
She looked around with eyes tinged by magic, but saw nothing.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby shakes his head solemnly, "Pursue where? That food is quite thoroughly wrecked, now,
and we've no idea which way she went in any case. I figure we just head back to the inn, see what everyone else found. Advantages of teamwork, Pet, let's not waste 'em."

[Oneris]

"Why not bring them here? If they can work magic we can't, a fresher scene will to be the better subject, will it not? And hurry. If she's been spirited away with any sort of path left behind every second brings her further out of my reach."

[TheOneHawk]

"We'll bring them here, sure, but like hell am I leaving you alone right now. C'mon." With that, Tobias begins heading back towards the inn.

[Oneris]

"What, worried about me vanishing without warning? You're too kind." Petra and her bunny followed, a small spring in her step.

[TheOneHawk]

Once returned to the inn, Toby finds the rest of the group there waiting for them. He finds himself the same seat as before and kicks back in it again calling for a mead, the first having been quite enjoyable. "Right,
he says, "S'pose the best way a doing this'd be for everyone to give a report of their findings, then we can figure out what to do 'bout it." He pulls out the scribbled page of notes and puts it on the table, continuing, "Petronia here cast a spell, learned somethin' of the pattern we're dealin' with. Got a full list of victims names and dates, as well as what appears to be another disappearance as only happened sometime today, one Aurelia Tabor. Seems like some kinda black cloaked figure is spiriting the girls away somehow.
Some other stuff too, but that seemed the most immediately important."

[Oneris]

Petra looked aghast at her brother's leisurely request for another drink. "Immediately important, yes, as in Right. This. Instant. The girl vanished from her house leaving oven on. That the house was not aflame and the food relatively intact-" At this, Chess pulled out the charcoal in question. "-means she could not have left longer than an hour at most. If she's on foot I may be able to track her, but only if I begin right now before she's out of range. Our best chance is already an hour old and I won't let that become two. Let's speak more on the way to her place. "

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded, passing the barkeep a note to give Sarah if they weren't back and a silver piece for the trouble. "I'll explain on the way, then. I spoke with Sarah. Her sister, Malina, became withdrawn and distracted. Not enough to cause alarm, but out of character. She became infatuated with our man in the black robes- but never really mentioned any concrete details beyond thin, black hair, and black robe," Cal reported. He kept his voice low enough to mostly keep it to the group. "It was about two days between Sarah first noticing the unusual behavior and the disappearance. Sarah has on of her sister's close personal items, which may help our investigation. For now, I left it with her for safekeeping. She'll check in here this evening- I don't want people helping us suddenly going disappearing as well."

[The Hellbug]

"That may not be necessary," Sidon says to Petra, "before they disappeared, the soldiers found the remains of the girls, and we also found a in their room map marking a particular place in the forest. Henry! The map!"--he impatiently holds out his hand for it--"if she didn't leave long ago, there's no time to lose. There's a chance me and Mab could catch her if that's where she went."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby looks sorrowfully back at his still undelivered mead as he's ushered out the door by his sister, but has to admit she's probably right. Once the map's mentioned, though, he stops in his tracks. "Whoa, whoa,
easy there mate. I'm as interested in saving the poor girls as anyone, but seems to me just following the trail of a pack a soldiers as ended up going just as missing as the girls is asking for the same fate ourselves. Gotta be smart about this."

[The Glyphstone]

Henry rummages through his pockets for a few seconds, retrieving the map in question and spreading it out on the nearby table.

"We can plan on the way, and discuss our findings. But if time is that short, we should make the best use of it by doing our preparations en route. 'Thin and dark-haired' isn't much to go on in terms of tactical preparation, so we'd be going in effectively blind anyways. The only clues we've got might be the scribbles around the edges of the map here."

[The Hellbug]

Ignoring Toby's reservations, Sidon takes a compass from his pocket and places it on the map, studying it for a moment. "Mhmm, shouldn't be far at all," he says, sweeping them both off the table as he moves toward the door, "me and Mab'll lead the way. With luck this whole business will be done by dark."

[Oneris]

"With luck we needn't enter those woods at all. I can't say what sorcery our mysterious robed stranger possesses, but if the muffling of all rumors was his doing then this will have no chance either."
Despite her pessimism, Petra was still willing to try. She took out a crystal pendulum and laid it upon the ground, where it stood upon its point upright slowly rotating.
Then, holding the image of Aurelia Tabor strongly in her mind, she took bits of the woman's intended last meal and sprinkled cinders upon the crystal.

The gem sparkled to life with the face of the women on its facets and spun rapidly, tugging North? no, West-no Eas-

-And clattered as if it hit a wall. "As I suspected. She's been warded..."
She grit her teeth and surged energy through the crystal desperately hoping for it to find purchase, but again it bounced back.

Just as the fetchling was about to attempt a third time, a black haze materialized out of thin air and wholly devoured the pendulum.
"...and they really don't want her found."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon pauses, Petra's failure to locate the missing girl by magic giving him a single moment of doubt. If they were using magic to protect against magical detection, would they surely not be hidden from more mundane means as well?

However, it is just that: a mere moment. "Look, we've still got a lead without your magic, and me and Mab are headed there, whether you're coming or not," the old hunter says with finality, shaking off his doubt and heading out the door. Mab gives one last look at the rest of the bounty hunters before following faithfully at Sidon's heels.

[Oneris]

"Before you go-" Petra pulled out what appeared to be a small red-and-gold bug from her back and pulled off the carapace, wincing at the increased pressure on her singed fingertips. "Here, take this." She handed Sidon the shell, actually a small copper coin stamped with an unknown queen.
"Keep this on your person, and I can track it, and you by extension."
Giving Sidon a Nesa's Coin (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Nesa%27s%20Coi n)

[The Hellbug]

Sidon turns around for the trinket. "Follow as quickly as you can--those soldiers disappeared to something," he urges, pocketing the coin, "and one last thing: the girl, she looked like the image in the gem?"

[Oneris]

"To... the best of my knowledge."
In truth, Petra did not know if the image accurately reflected the image in her mind. From birth, she'd been unable to see color except for the most brightest and saturated hues, and even those were only perceived as pale pastels. All her knowledge of color came from what she saw in her dreams. It was fortunate that the first spell projected the image of the she ought to have seen into her head, and the second plucked that same image back out, saving her a lot of trouble.

"She may not have yet reached the forest; I'll accompany you to the edge of town, then scout near the north and east gates. "

[TheOneHawk]

While he grumbles a little when Sidon and Petra completely ignore his logical reservations, Toby continues with the group and begins pulling out knives from hidden sheathes all over his body and checking their already incredibly keen edges as he goes. No convincing Pet when she's like this, best just keep her safe when this all goes to crap.

[The Hellbug]

Sidon nods. "Follow as quickly as you can, then," he orders, "you'll be close enough to hear my horn. Long-long-short for trouble; short-long-long if I find the girl. Godspeed to all of us." Without a further word, he leaves the inn and gets to the hunt.

[QuidEst]

"All right. Who's following directly? If somebody wants to handle the tracking, I can take the lead out front in case we run into something unpleasant," Cal offered, patting the sword at his side.

[The Glyphstone]

"I can't track worth a damn, someone else will have to do that."Henry is somewhat grumpily rummaging through his many pockets and pouches, pulling out vials and bottles in an alarming variety of colors and checking their seals before replacing them in no particular order.

[ylvathrall]

A quick overflight of the village reveals nothing of particular interest. It doesn't seem that anyone has noticed the disappearance yet, as you don't see any disruption.

Mab doesn't seem to be able to catch a scent, but your experienced eye catches the occasional glimpse of tracks as you leave the village - specifically, hoofprints, and fresh. They seem to be heading north, but when you reach the forest, you lose the trail, leaving you little more than the map to go on.

Not too much longer, you're in the general vicinity of the circled area on the map. At first you don't see anything, but after a while casting around, you catch a glimpse of a building - a dark stone tower, it looks like, looming out of the trees just a bit further to the north.

Cal is not far behind you, just within sight through the forest.

After about an hour and a half, you're in the general vicinity of the circled area on the map. Sidon's tracks have led you here without any difficulty following them, even to an untrained eye. At first you don't see anything, but as you're catching up to him, you catch a glimpse of a building - a dark stone tower, it looks like, looming out of the trees just a bit further to the north.

Sidon is not far in front of you, just within sight through the forest.

[The Hellbug]

That has to be it; won't be needing this anymore Sidon sends rhetorically to Mab as the tower comes into view, and he stows the map. A quick look back is enough to pick out Cal making his way through the trees; the hunter waves him over. "This is the place on the map," he warns the occultist when he catches up, "did you see the tracks on the way here? Someone's come through recently--on horseback, too--I'll bet that's our Tabor girl. I don't know exactly what goes on in there, but we may not yet be too late. How close are the others? Every second counts. Are you with me?" As he finishes, the hunter offers Cal his hand.

[TheOneHawk]

When Petra returns to earth, Toby runs up and asks, "Didja see anything up there, kiddo?"

[Oneris]

"No, I did not," The paper crane replied when it had morphed back into a fetchling. "As it happens: when your eyes are drawn on with india ink, your eyesight isn't that good. I don't know what I did wrong making this..."

"Anyways, from what I did not see Aurelia's likely under the trees by now, and by the look of it the village hasn't yet noticed.
Let's hope the others have done better, but not so much so that they've vanished as well. "

[TheOneHawk]

Toby nods, his expression grim. "Guess we'll try and catch up with the others, then. C'mon," he says, before taking off northward with a long, loping stride

[QuidEst]

Cal shook his head, stopping to catch his breath. "No, too busy just trying to keep up with you. We should have the others here- time may be of the essence, but we've got strong indications that this guy is dealing in enchantments, we want the whole group ready. Easier to deal with somebody getting their head messed with when there's a larger group there to keep you in check. If we went in by ourselves and one of us gets taken over, then it's two against one, and by the time the others arrive, they have three people to deal with."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon bites his lip in frustration. "You're right," he relents, "but let's at least take a look around the outside to make sure this is where she came. You can stay hidden nearby while I do that, right?"

[ylvathrall]

The tower is a surprisingly large edifice, at least fifty feet tall and thirty feet across. The walls are built of heavy black stone, not a stone that looks to be native to the area. The door is a similarly heavy, dark wood, with a large lock on it.

Of more immediate interest, however, are a pair of horses standing outside. Prints lead up to the tower from the southeast, and from the look of it you're sure they're the same animals you were tracking earlier - apparently they turned along a slightly different angle before curving back in this direction.

There is no other sign of life around the tower, beyond the forest it rises out of.

The others left a well-marked trail through the forest, and you have no difficulty following it. A few hours of walking later, you see Cal in front of you, apparently waiting. Sidon is not in sight. You do, however, see a large black stone tower not far off.

[TheOneHawk]

Having checked and rechecked his knives on the journey, Toby's nearly twitching at the thought of the impending danger when Cal finally comes into view. Jogging up to the man, he asks in a hushed tone, "You two find anythin'? Where the hell's Sidon, anyways?"

[QuidEst]

"He's circling around to check things out. I'm keeping an eye on things from here," Cal answered. "Since whoever we're dealing with probably relies on enchantments, we wanted everybody on hand. He should be circling back any moment now."

[Oneris]

She'd made certain to inform the advancing pair of the superfluity of leaving a trail, but alas, it seemed either distrust of her marvelous pebble or eagerness to spoil the foliage prevailed, and the resulting damage to the local scenery was enthusiastic and abundant. By the time the group caught up with the others the game of I Spy had counted 14 broken branches previously untouched by human hands, seven arrows slashed in trees older than living memory, and three cairns of mossy rocks wrenched from decades of peaceful slumber. If this little expedition proved to be in error, there'd be hell to pay from the Children of the Forest.

But happily it was not, and as they approached the occultist their quarry in the distance was plain to see.
"How curious," mused Petra as she followed her brother ahead, "I did not recall any tales of mysterious stone structures in the forest when 'interrogating' the townspeople. Has no one ventured this far and returned to tell, or did these enchantments wipe all mention of this from their lips?"

[The Hellbug]

As soon as Sidon hears the others, he abandons any sort of attempt to stifle the little noise he makes as he stalks across the forest floor. Mab reaches the clearing with the others first, but the hunter is close behind. "Hard to say," Sidon answers as arrives, "it seems out of place, but it's hard to see until you're pretty close to it."

He quickly shifts his attention to the rest of the group, though. "I took a closer look," he announces impatiently, "nobody outside except a pair of horses, but I doubt they've been here long, and we my still be able to surprise whoever's inside. Only way in I could see was a door, a big oak one--locked. Any chance one of you can get it open quickly and quietly?"

[TheOneHawk]

Toby raises his hand. "I've done that sorta thing a time or two before, generally ain't too hard," he says, reaching back into his haversack and pulling out a set of lockpicks. "Won't take too long, maybe a minute or two." He heads for the door and kneels down in front of it, inserting a pick and starting to feel around inside the lock, closing his eyes and frowning in concentration.

Taking 20 for a 36

[Oneris]

"Toby, not so fast! What if it's trapped or, worse, alarmed? This isn't the first time a group has breached the solitude of this clearing, and the last that did so likely proceeded much as you. Might I remind: they never returned."

A magical scan of the portal picked up nothing but the presence of the magic coin nearby, but Petra's heart was still not set at ease. "It may still be mundanely trapped. We should look for an alternative..."
She looked up towards the tower spire and shaded her eyes from the sun, searching intently, but- "Are there really no windows? How do these people breathe?"

[QuidEst]

"Don't need a window," Cal says, flexing one hand. "I can shape another door in the stone, giving us a different way in altogether. Everybody always just worries about the front entrance- they never bother trapping arbitrary parts of walls for some reason."

Take 10 on K(Engineering) for where a good door would go: 25
17 cubic feet should be enough, I would imagine.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby shrugs and puts his lockpicks away. "Magic away, then."

[The Hellbug]

"Hurry up, then," Sidon urges quietly, "doesn't matter what it is as long as it's quick."

[QuidEst]

Cal circled around the tower a little ways. Finally situating himself, he put his bandage-wrapped hand up against the wall for moment before drawing his arm back and punching the wall. The stone rippled at the impact, flowing away to leave an archway admitting the group. He nodded to the others, drawing his sword.

[ylvathrall]

When Cal opens his doorway in the stone wall of the tower, the interior of the tower at first seems quite mundane. The bottom level is a cramped one, with a ceiling only about eight feet above the floor. A single open room appears to take up the entirety of the tower, and is both unlit and uninhabited at a glance. You can, after your eyes adjust, just make out a staircase on the other side of the room, which appears to wrap around the outside wall of the tower, and only goes upward.

It's around this time that you notice a more macabre aspect of the room. Manacles hang from the walls at regular intervals, and most of them clearly weren't unused. Skeletons dangle from many of them, while some few have fresh corpses. Between the two, it looks like there are eleven bodies within the room, and space for more.

You make out a crossbow propped up against the wall, and aimed at the door. It looks like it's rigged to go off when the door is opened.

The intact bodies are more recent, dating from within the past few weeks. The skeletons, though, are far older - decades, you'd guess. This place has been in use for a rather long time.

[QuidEst]

Cal stepped in cautiously, looking around and keeping his sword at the read. "Looks like we saved ourselves a warm greeting at least," he said grimly. "The skeletons are old- even magic used to reduce bodies down to the bones for necromancy doesn't leave them like this."

[TheOneHawk]

As Toby follows Cal into the he is hit by the stench of the decaying bodies and gags. "God damn it's foul in here," he says once he's recovered his composure a bit. Feels like I just stepped into friggin' hell. Looks it, too. Stay behind me, Pet, ok?"

[The Hellbug]

Sidon and Mab push into the room as soon as there's room. The stench hits Sidon far harder than it does Mab, and he buries his face in the crook of his arm as his canine companion puts her head to the ground to sniff around. "Just stay away from that door," he suggests to her with a cough before stepping over towards the bodies. Sure enough, young ladies all--almost certainly the same thing those soldiers had run into, but none of them are Aurelia.

"She's not here," he begins, "maybe she's still..."

At that moment, though, his thoughts drift to another time, and an intense wave of nausea washes over the old lawman. Men, women, children, all equal before the pyre, eyes, tongues and hands removed, the unburneds' throats cut in haste... He rushes to a corner away from the bodies, falls to his knees, and vomits. Mab is at his side immediately, and he puts one hand on her to steady himself as he stands, wiping his mouth with the back of the other. "Ugh...the stairs, she must be up there," he eventually manages as he takes a step in that direction.

[The Glyphstone]

Trailing behind the others, Henry catches the scent of rot and death before he sees the bodies themselves.

"Well, that's an unpleasant smell. Good thing I ate before coming out here, I'd certainly have lost any appetite I had otherwise. But you say our missing girl isn't hanging out here? Maybe we are still in time then."

He scowls, eyes going out of focus as he turns attention to the empathic bond with his parasitic familiar and orders it to ready for battle.

From the outside, it looks as if his obese, swollen gut ripples, twitching and moving of its own accord. A few seconds later, a large lump of glistening and semi-gelatinous flesh slides out from under his shirt to land on the floor with a wet plop. It shivers, reshaping into a form vaguely resembling a bipedal reptile, then shivers again and stretches grotesquely to become a man-sized version. Knots of scar tissue sit in socket-like cavities like eyes, but the teeth in its rubbery mouth gleam razor-sharp.

Henry pops his back, his tunic hanging loose like a second skin over his now-normally proportioned belly. From a slit in the shirt, an arm unfolds itself and snatches the shield slung on his back, while he draws the morningstar at his hip with one regular hand and sips from a pair of vials with the other.

"Well, I'm ready to see what could be responsible for this and get well-paid for turning it into a greasy smear. What about the rest of you?"


Tumor familiar detaches and engages Battle Form. Henry uses an extra of Alchemical Allocation, then sips from his Potion of Shield of Faith +5.

[Oneris]

Petra did not have to be told twice to stay towards the back. If the tower's inhabitant felt so inspired to trap a random portion of the wall in the event that it melted like a marshmallow (what an amazing spell!), it would certainly be best that the others be caught in it first. Besides, with their bulk, she eyed the corpulent alchemist, they'd be much more fit to withstand whatever the tower had to offer. Still, not being one to underprepare (she tells herself), she reached into her pack and pulled out her liquid metal 'armor', and pushed to the back of her mind the possibility of it causing cancer.

---
It certainly wasn't the worst abattoir that she'd come across in her line of work (that'd be the aforementioned Friendly Neighborhood Butcher), but between the two this was certainly the more objectionable. Even Petra's 'seasoned' reaction of merely a sharp intake of breath was ill advised given the level of filth and decay.

"Not only Aurelia, but several other recent missing aren't here, most notably the soldiers," She observed clinically through a scarf pulled up over her face. Chess jot her remarks into a journal, pausing to scribble illustrations of the scene and reactions.
"Cause of death likely exsanguination, suffocation, or blood-loss-induced heart failure due to a slashed throat. Victims may not have been fully unconscious, incapacitated, or willing; I'm spotting other injuries, uncertain if primarily defensive. Variation in decay progression indicate they were executed in separate events and not as one."

She walked to the back and swung a metal-coated hand through the more desiccated corpses. "Skeletal remains appear to be from a previous iteration of this event; you'll note the hip bones indicate mixed male and female victims. CoD uncertain, assume same.

Noticing the crossbow near the door, she plucked out the ammunition, just in case. "If this door was previously the only entrance; the victims must have been under either heavy enchantment or sustained some violence to be persuaded to enter, and may explain the injuries."

Petra turned back to the group just in time to see what no amount of conversing with overenthusiastic chirurgeon-aspirants could prepare her for. Revulsion that went unexpressed at the tower contents reasserted itself with a vengeance at the sight of the alchemist sloughing off his viscera and the best the poor girl could do was to find a section of scarf closer to the ends to empty her own abdominal contents.

"What-rrkchh-what sort of malformed anatomical reject are you?!" she sputtered between mouthfuls of twice cake. Pastries weren't so nice the second time around...


Activate Djezet Skin, AC=15

[TheOneHawk]

Toby watches... whatever it was Henry just did with a mixture of shock and disgust, though he manages to keep his most recent meal in his stomach. "Takes all kinds..." he mutters to himself, shaking his head and turning to follow Sidon up the stairs.

[The Glyphstone]

Henry manages to look deeply offended. "Reject? Little girl, do you have any idea how difficult it is to alchemically distill your own animalistic hungers into an independently animate, proto-sapient entity? It's a far more impressive accomplishment than the typical arcanist's familiar, just throwing some expensive powders around and hoping a suitably cute animal wanders up to you. Only drawback is that it's a lazy bugger, prefers to ride around and sleep unless there's something to eat or kill nearby."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon steadies himself quickly and makes his last few steps to the stairs singlemindedly enough to have missed most of the drama going on behind him. At the bottom, he whispers an invocation, and his skin takes on a metal-like texture. Then, he sparks a torch with his magic, draws his blade, and gives Mab a mental nudge to take his side. "Quickly now, no time to waste," he urges the others as he begins the climb.

Ironskin for some AC.

[QuidEst]

Cal didn't appear too phased by the Henry's "familiar". After all, he was hosting a bound spirit trapped and compelled into service.

He followed along behind the others, keeping his sword and shield at the ready, but something was… off. "Listen… I know necromancy, and this is necromancy, but it isn't adding up. There are a lot of bodies, and over time. It wasn't for a big ritual, or it'd be all at once. The door had a crossbow rigged up, instead of a contingency of undead, and the bodies were lying there. This is a really worrying combination of 'horrifyingly effective' and 'incompetently inefficient'. Using raw necromantic power to fuel enchantments to get more victims for more power?" Most magic had clear boundaries of power, but necromancy dealt a lot with those boundaries. Curses imposed them, but you could also pay to push your own boundaries further, at least for a little while. Normally it was a limited affair, but that enchantment had lasted a long time without showing a great deal of finesse or control, hadn't it?

[Oneris]

"It's just...the aesthetics..." The girl protested as she severed the ruined portion of her scarf and discarded it in a corner. An impressive accomplishment it may be, but the man had definitely gone for substance over style. "Most would be hard pressed not to assume it's some unfortunate ablation from a mouldering corpse here to artistically rearrange our organs..."

The idea of working alongside another man's innards was motivation enough to send Petra hurrying up the stairs after her sibling, to whom she stuck rather close.

[ylvathrall]

Sidon is in a rush as he climbs the stairs, but not so much of a rush that he misses the tripwire strung across the stairs at the second floor landing. It appears to be rigged to a large flask of acid on the doorway, but once he's noticed the trap, it's little threat; he can easily step over it.

The second floor landing is quite simple, consisting of little more than a landing with a wall to the inside. It has a door in it which appears to be locked, but no other features. Ahead, the staircase continues onward, spiraling up around the edge of the tower to the next floor. Further details are easily overlooked as he hears a sound, coming from the top of the tower. It's a bit hard to catch so far down, but the stairway carries the sound well, and he can easily make it out: the sound of a young woman crying, coming from above.

[The Hellbug]

Sidon points out the acid trap with a raised finger, but, when they reach the landing Mab's ears perk up at the sound of the woman's crying from above. "Aye, I hear her, too," Sidon grunts when she looks at him before he turns back to the others. "Hurry! I can hear her upstairs. We're not too late yet!"

Before anyone has a chance to respond, he continues up the stairs, doubling his pace.

[QuidEst]

"You can hear someone?" Cal said. "I'll help." The traps hadn't been very impressive yet, and it was an awfully big gamble to hold off on the good stuff. An illusion was a possibility, but they wouldn't have everybody rushing in, just enough to buy time. He unfurled a narrow bolt of cloth, stepping onto it. As soon as he did, it leapt up with him on it, carrying him up along the staircase's spiral, the way illuminated by the light of a spell placed on his shield.

Mind Over Gravity: fly speed of 60 for 1 min/level. Total bonus of +18.
Light, cast on his shield.

[Oneris]

The tension in the air is palpable, much like the very obvious trap in the stairwell. Cutting the wire and looting the attached acid was child's play, but the simplicity of bypassing the tower's defenses so far set Petra on edge.
"Not that I don't appreciate a little convenience, but this feels like an ambush. On following a suspiciously accurate map we immediately found a surfeit of evidence, the abductor appears in residence and abductee still alive, and our way is barred by only trivial traps. Even after this place has been once intruded!
It seems rather a more clever snare set to entice overeager simple folk, much like those vanished soldiers." Or us if we follow along.

The enemy was either dangerously overconfident, or simply dangerous, and she'd have no truck with the latter. As soon as they came to the second landing, the fetchling broke off to investigate the less obvious lead of the locked door. Not much more of an unanticipated action, but the delay could be useful.

Skeleton Key DD: [roll]1d20+10[roll]

[ylvathrall]

Sidon hurries up the stairs, rushing past a third floor landing that seems much the same as the second floor. The crying gets louder as he approaches, resolving into clear sobbing sounds as he approaches the fourth floor.

Once he reaches it, he emerges into an entirely different sort of space. The room is open, the same as the one at the base of the tower was, but with very different contents. The room is brightly lit by torches set in metal sconces around the space, and you can see tiny slit windows around the roof which must provide fresh air to the room, though they were far too small to see from the ground.

The light only makes it easier to see how disturbing the room's contents are. Three metal cages hang from the ceiling, two of which have long-dead skeletons in them. The third contains the obvious source of the crying: a young woman, sobbing, her black hair hanging around her face. One of her arms is covered in blood, with nothing but a dirty rag tied on as a bandage. A large stone slab at the center of the room is the only other furniture, and it's there that the other occupant of the room is standing. A human man in a black robe, the hood is pulled down to reveal rather average features, with brown hair and brown eyes. He has a bloody knife in one hand, and he's poring over a book with the other.

The robed man looks up as you enter, blinking in surprise. "What?" he says, rather inanely.

That blood on the girl's arm isn't enough to do serious damage yet, but it definitely is enough to need medical attention soon.

The door easily turns open, revealing an open room which appears to be a laboratory of some kind. Tables line the room, and most of them are covered in equipment you can't readily identify, or else in sheets of paper. Most of the material is covered in a thick layer of dust, with only one table appearing recently used.

At the top, you recognize both of the room's occupants from your visions. The woman is Aurelia Tabor, and the man is the robed figure you saw alongside the disappearances.

Combat is yours, you have a surprise round. Tactical map is here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12wPCrhkGeLbRJK4Qltwm8xmJeAKUuOv_FcClz3TKjfA/edit?usp=sharing). Henry and Petra go before him on the following turn, others after.

[QuidEst]

The cloth deposited Cal in front of the robed man, curling itself up while unneeded. Cal held his sword at the ready, chanting quietly under his breath in a mixture of Celestial and Necril. As he finished, the blade took on an ominous intent to it.

Activate Legacy Weapon for a total of +2 weapon bonuses. Going with Keen and Bane(Human).

[The Hellbug]

It doesn't take more than a moment for Sidon to make up his mind about the situation in the room. "You," he growls at the robed man, tossing his torch aside and stepping up onto the table as Mab flanks around to the side to get between the man and the caged girl, "drop the knife or this tower's your grave."

Sidon moves up onto the slab and Mab gets to L10 (wow, this place is packed).

[TheOneHawk]

Dashing up the stairs after Sidon, Toby doesn't even notice his sister take a detour on the second floor and continues straight up after the man and his dog. Once he reaches the top floor, he looks around long enough to register the skeletons, wounded girl and incredibly suspicious looking man and immediately starts pulling out daggers, whipping a pair of them at the man as hard as he can.

Toby to K8, he's throwing 2 of his masterwork daggers.

Thrown dagger 1
attack[roll0]
crit[roll1]
Damage [roll2]
Crit damage [roll3]

Thrown dagger 2
attack[roll4]
crit[roll5]
Damage [roll6]
Crit damage [roll7]

On hit, -2 to AC for one round (Stacks to 2 if both hit), additional -2 vs Tobias.

[The Glyphstone]

Close behind Sideon, Henry quickly assesses the situation and follows his lead. As the hunter and his dog take up flanking positions to the left and right of the robed man, Henry moves to surround him from the north and sends his familiar in a looping circle around the dias to flank him from the south. He says nothing, but the solid two-handed grip on his morningstar promises pain if the man fails to comply with Sideon's demand.

[ylvathrall]

"Who the hell are you?" the robed man says, not dropping the dagger. His other hand, though, weaves through a quick gesture, and he speaks a quick incantation just after the question. Before he can finish chanting the incantation, though, a hail of blows from the people surrounding him rains down on him. It's hard to say who lands the final blow, with all of the strikes landing more or less at the same time. By the end, though, the robed man is little more than a bloody heap on the floor. The daggers Tobias threw at the wall are easily overlooked in the face of the fact that the man is quite, quite dead.

"Oh gods," Aurelia says, flinching away from the violence and cringing back into the corner of the hanging cage. "Oh Sarenrae, thank you, I...he...." She trails off, hyperventilating. "Can...can you help me? I...feel a little faint."

[The Glyphstone]

Looking faintly disappointed, Henry cleans the gore off his morningstar with a relatively un-stained chunk of robes before returning it to its belt loop, while his mutant third arm stows the shield and curls back inside his tunic. His tumor familiar pokes at the remains of the corpse for a few moments as if tasting the blood and meat. Then it turns to him,shrinks back down to its pocket-sized form and crawls back up his leg like a flesh-colored jelly to hide under his shirt again. Once more looking somewhere between obese and pregnant, he finally looks up at the imprisoned girl and studies her critically.

"Let's start by getting her down and out of that cage; we need to put pressure on that wound before she loses any more blood."

[QuidEst]

Cal sheathed his sword and hurried over, pulling out a potion from his pack and getting in position to apply pressure to the wound. "Here, drink this, it'll help out a little. I'm glad you're okay; we'll get you back to town," he said, keeping up a casual tone to reassure her.

Potion of CLW. Maybe not the most cost effective option, but it's more tangible and reassuring.

[Oneris]

Not that the other tables wouldn't also have material useful to this 'ritual' or whatnot, but given the layer of dust their info may be relevant only to that one a decade ago, and from the differences in the victims selected it seems this version wasn't quite the same. With all the finesse of an irate ferret Petra rifled through the papers and drawers of the one recently used desk, eyes peeled for any sign that what awaited at the top of the tower wasn't as straightforward as it appeared.

"Chess, go see if the others need any assistance. Stay out of sight."
The bunnykit obliged and faded like mist, but as the door swung in the unseen breeze a small voice in the back of the girl's head whispered that if they indeed needed assistance, there'd be nothing she could do about it.

"Just go!" Pet snapped, not keen on the observation.

Just sayin'... came the retort, and then she was alone.

[ylvathrall]

The table appears to be covered in notes, and from the look of it, things haven't been going well. Most of the formulae written on the papers are crossed out, and more than one sheet has been crumpled up and thrown aside in apparent frustration. Reading over them, it looks like necromantic research, but even without being an expert on the topic, the researcher doesn't appear to be terribly skilled. Half of the formulae have errors, and the other half largely appear to be used incorrectly. That being said, though, it at moments includes remarkably sophisticated features, some of which you don't recognize. The overall impression is that of someone who didn't entirely know what he was doing, but likely had someone else's work to draw on for much of it. If so, though, that person doesn't appear to have helped with things directly.

"Thank you," the girl says, taking the potion in her uninjured hand and drinking it without hesitation. She looks much improved already, and manages to sit up straight rather than leaning on the bars of the cage. "He was...he was going to kill me."

[The Hellbug]

"Figured that'd be the case," Sidon says to the dead man, his anger clearly bubbling just below the surface, "more of a mercy than you deserved." He leans over the dead man's body and quickly locates a ring of keys in one of his robe pockets. He wordlessly offers them to the people dealing with the girl as he continues to comb the man's possessions for anything that could help identify him.

Mab, meanwhile, ceases her snarl as soon as the robed man is no longer a threat and joins the others near the cage, giving a huff of annoyance as she tries to squeeze in with the rest of them.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby quietly moves past everyone to retrieve his knives and check the edges, frowning at a small chip in one of them, before heading over to Sidon and taking the keys. "Well, that didn't work out for him so well, now let's get you out of there." He says with a friendly smile as he unlocks the cage. If ya don't mind me askin', miss, did he happen to say anything about what in the hell he was doing here? Aside from, y'know, murdering you. "

[ylvathrall]

Aurelia stumbles in her hurry to step out of the cage, and ends up falling into Tobias's arms. "He said this was....Stanimir's old tower. The king's wizard. He said he was, he was trying to research the old wizard's methods. But it...it wasn't working for him. He couldn't make it work." She glances down at the mutilated body, and for a moment a flicker of satisfaction is visible in her eyes. "I don't think he was very bright. He kept taking people from the village to....experiment on. Trying to get the rituals right. But it kept going wrong."

Stanimir was the wizard of the king who was murdered on his coronation day. This is common knowledge, no check required.

[TheOneHawk]

Gracefully catching the young woman, Toby gently helps her to the floor with smile, kneeling in front of her with a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "There, there, miss. I'm sure this has been very trying for you. Just sit there and relax a minute, he's no threat to you or anyone else anymore. We'll get you back to your house where you'll be safe real soon, though I'm afraid your dinner is rather burnt at this point; we didn't time that rescue attempt quite so well." He grins at her, then gets back to his feet. Stanimir's tower, you say? Hadn't heard of him doing the whole creepy human sacrifice thing, though I guess that ain't really the kinda thing you advertise. Maybe that's why Vesna offed him? Make a hell of a lot more sense than most of the stories I heard 'bout that day."

[The Hellbug]

"Or he could've just been mad," Sidon suggests from his knee, "someone as powerful as Stanimir himself coming and going would've made quite a bit more of a stir back while he was alive, by my reckoning. I could be wrong, though. Does anyone in the village know this tower even exists?"

Mab's tail wags with relief when she sees that the girl is alright taking her own weight and backs off from the press of people near her cage, satisfied.

[ylvathrall]

"I didn't," Aurelia offers. "They always told us to stay out of these woods, that they were haunted. He said it was a defense system that Stanimir put in place, but he deactivated it. I don't know if it was true or not though."

[QuidEst]

Cal looked around, shaking his head. "Why don't we get Aurelia back to town, inform the authorities, and then we can return to do a more thorough examination? I'd like to know if there's anything we need to worry about from the partially completed research- we'll grab the book at the very least."

[TheOneHawk]

"Now, now, let's give the lass a moment to catch her breath. Didn't see you spend several hours in a cage fearin' for your life while a whackjob waxed poetic about killin' ya," says Toby. He looks down at the young woman and continues, "Take your time, miss. We ain't on a schedule now, some folks are just impatient. No reason we can't do a little research now, unless you'd rather just get out of here, wouldn't blame you a bit if you did, but I figure it's up to you when we leave." He shrugs and heads over to the bloody carcass of the necromancer, picking up the knife and wiping the blood off to examine the blade's quality.

[The Hellbug]

Sidon places the contents of the mage's pockets on the table for a more learned person to examine before unsheathing his blade and preparing to take the man's head. However, before he even raises it, the hunter remembers the horses outside and decides not to risk unsettling the prisoner even further; and so he dismisses his defensive spell and lifts the man's body over his shoulder. "I'll take care of the body," he announces, "someone in back in town might recognize him. Mab, you stay here and let me know if I'm needed."

With that, he makes his way to the door, turning around only to issue a warning while Mab lays down in one of the corners, keeping an eye on the rest of the group. "And watch out for the acid on the way out; I don't think anyone took care of that."

Sidon's just taking the dead guy out to set the corpse up with one of the horses. The things on the table are a potion of cure moderate wounds and a potion of invisibility and a wand of mage armor.

[ylvathrall]

"I want to go home," Aurelia says, sounding rather plaintive. "I want...I don't want to be here anymore. This is a really bad place."

The knife is a touch oddly weighted, seeming more like a heavy butcher's tool than a weapon; it's clearly designed for slicing meat, rather than for piercing or chopping. The edge has blood on it both fresh and dried. Despite the unusual weight, the knife is still of good quality, and appears to be functional enough.

It's just a regular dagger.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby gives the dagger a once over, then shrugs and puts it in his pack. It's not a great dagger, but it'll sharpen up nicely and make for a nice memento. Turning back to Aurelia he nod and offers his hand. "Fair enough then, c'mon, let's get you back home."

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded, taking the book, wrapping it up, and placing it in his pack. Even if the tower were raided in the meantime, the book was probably their most valuable clue into what exactly was going on. This fool didn't seem like he'd have made it this far working without any guidance, after all. "We'll take you back, make sure you're safe," he assured her.

[The Hellbug]

Outside, Sidon hoists the dead mage's body onto the saddle of one of the horses. He is preparing to tie it it in place, though, when Mab catches a scent. She raises her nose, sniffing the air before turning and looking at the hunter. He meets her gaze for a moment before turning back to his task, and the big dog goes back to sniffing the ground nonchalantly in the clearing around the tower. Soon, though, Sidon finishes the binding, testing it with a pull once as Mab raises her head to regard him once again. Wordlessly, he draws his sword and follows his companion toward her estimation of the source of the foul smell.

[Oneris]

Petra tossed the papers aside brusquely and picked up another, then another. Each new sheet furrowed her brow and deepened her scowl further until it became too painful to continue expressing her disgust in such a manner.
"I-Is this really the extent of this whole endeavor? Some hopped up farmboy incompetent fancying himself a great enchanter, playing make believe with actual murder? "
The girl rubbed between her eyes in exasperation and stormed towards the door determined to ask the self-styled 'mage' if he was anything more than he appeared. Provided he was still alive, which wasn't likely.

But then she paused at the door and looked back. Someone here had been an expert, and reprehensible as the method was, as is usually the case with necromancy, research was research. If left to the town's devices no doubt these papers would never see the light of day again at best, or burned as forbidden knowledge at worst. There was no knowing what sort of gears had been set in motion with these amateurish attempts, even less so if the working steps were lost. Or the so-called 'mage' was killed. Which he probably was.

Reasoning sound, the investigator-sometimes-secretary gathered the dust-covered papers with care to their former placement and filed them away into her bottomless bookbag, then snatched up the offending papers without even the luxury of a paper clip.

The scene at the top of the tower was...much as she expected.
"I see you've taken care of this with your usual discretion. Tell me: before you used his brain matter to re-wax the floor, did anyone at least ask of the other missing people? We came here for more than who we've found."

[ylvathrall]

Mab leads you off into the trees, towards the center of the marked area on the map you found. It's only a few minutes before your own less sensitive nose also detects the odor: a thick stench of decaying meat fills the air.

In the next clearing, you see the source of the odor. A number of corpses have been heaped in the center of the clearing. All of them appear to be young human women, and the bodies are in poor shape. Even accounting for the scavengers and rot which have clearly taken their toll on the bodies, the corpses are rough-treated. Many are outright dismembered, while others look to have been vivisected.

There's nothing moving within the clearing.

[The Hellbug]

Sidon has a guess about the source of the smell as soon as he can sense it, but the scene itself proves him wrong by a degree. The stench alone makes his eyes water as he steps into the clearing, and he wretches again, though this time with an empty stomach. His anger at the dead mage begins boiling up again. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," he mutters, "too late again."

But it can't last long--the hunter can't kill that psychotic mage again, after. With a sad sigh, he turns around and heads back towards the tower. "Alright, Mab, let's see if any of the others brought shovels."

Once Sidon gets back to the other bounty hunters, he announces his find. "There were more outside--recent ones from the look of it. He wasn't just killing them; he was cutting them up, too."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby grimaces and shakes his head. "We'll come back and give them a proper burial, Sid, but let's take care of the living first."

[The Hellbug]

Sidon nods. The aggrieved would likely prefer some hand in taking care of the remains, anyway. "What are we waiting for, then?" he asks, turning to head back outside, "the body's secure and there's another horse for the girl."

[ylvathrall]

Back at the village, everything seems quiet, though people have obviously noticed that something is amiss. More than a few are gathered around Aurelia's home, and are clearly shocked to see her on the horse. A handful rush up and help her down, hugging her. Others cringe back upon seeing the body on the other horse.

"I think I need to sit down," Aurelia says, her voice wavering. "I still...feel a little faint." She walks unsteadily towards her home, stumbling once, as the crowd parts before her.

[QuidEst]

Cal looked concerned as Aurelia stumbled. "Are you all right? Listen… I can stick around and make sure you're okay. Petra, are you able to cast the sending scroll to report? I can try if you need."

[TheOneHawk]

When Aurelia stumbles, Tobias quickly walks forward and offers her his hand. "Come now, miss,
let's get you inside. Some time away and a stiff drink'll do wonders, I think."

[The Hellbug]

Aye, wouldn't it.

His allies looking to have things under control with the crowd and Aurelia, Sidon slips away and heads back towards the inn. He only stops when Mab turns to see him leave. "You'll know where to find me," he assures her before continuing on his way, leaving the big dog to follow the rest of the bounty hunters.

[ylvathrall]

"Thank you," Aurelia says, her voice slightly unsteady. "I'll just...sit down a moment. Please, come inside. Can I offer you tea?" She stumbles slightly on the way into her house, but seems to be recovering already.

[TheOneHawk]

Tobias smiles and nods, saying "Tea would be lovely, thank you," as he helps Aurelia into the house.

[Oneris]

The less enamored fetchling rubbed the bridge of her nose again and sighed for as many times in as many hours as it took to return back to civilization. This whole operation stank, and that wasn't just a comment on the dead man's damaged bowels. The sheer number of those victimized, the simply execrable combination of incompetence and malevolence, the simplicity with which this supposedly difficult case was 'solved'...

But voicing her misgivings may see this investigation interminable, and Petra didn't want a moment's delay in returning her brother safely back home. Things could be as it should be finally...

"If you believe this to be over, then you report it. I'll be going over the paperwork back at the inn."
"Come on, Toby," she chided her brother, "Leave the lady alone. I'm sure she's had enough of tall dark strangers for one day."

[TheOneHawk]

Toby rolls his eyes at his sister and shoos her away with a quick, "I'll meet you back at the inn tonight, after all, ain't it proper questor protocol to question the witness? Don't worry, I'll take care of it for you.
I might even take notes!" Before slipping into the house after Aurelia.

[The Glyphstone]

Shrugging, Henry waits until their rescued damsel is safely returned to her house before going off in search of his payment, whoever the original note of bounty said would be to give the requested reward. Even split as many ways as the money turned out to be, it would be a nice chunk of cash. He'd found an unexpected bounty on one of the dust-covered laboratory tables as well, what he was almost certain were a few extremely rare alchemical herbs he'd been trying to acquire for some time. With those, and the payout from this job, he was nearly ready to prepare his Elixir of Ethical Apotheosis.

[ylvathrall]

Aurelia is slightly unsteady as she prepares tea, serving it in chipped ceramic cups that have clearly seen a great deal of use. Once it's prepared, she sits with you at the table, holding the cup between her hands and breathing in the steam with a happy expression.

"You saved my life," she says. "I...thank you so much. It's still hard to believe what happened. What that maniac was going to do to me. If it hadn't been for you I...I'd be bleeding out in that cage, wouldn't I? Or already dead." Her hand shakes as she takes a sip of tea. "What did I do to make him do that to me?"

As you are packing your things, you hear a voice in your head, clearly that of Marquess Plamen's court wizard. Sending spell. Report status of current investigation. Is threat identified and/or neutralized? Twenty-five word response.

[TheOneHawk]

"I don't pretend to know much about... whatever it was he was trying to do there. Mostly leave that magic stuff to my sister, but far as I can tell you bein' a young woman was enough of a crime for him. Absolute nutter, I think. World's better off without his ilk."He says, then shrugs and takes a sip of the tea. "Speakin' of my sister, she found some kinda magic... I don't friggin' know. I don't pretend to understand it, but if you could tell us anything you remember him doin' or sayin'..." He trails off with a hopeful expression.

[ylvathrall]

"I don't...not really? I don't remember much of the ride to the tower. He said something to me and I just...wanted to follow him. It felt like there was a fog inside my head, like I was thinking things that weren't me thinking. Then we got there and he put me in a cage. That's when things started to clear, but I couldn't get out. He was muttering something about life, eternal life or bringing the dead to life or something, but I couldn't hear clearly. Then he started cutting me, and...that's when you got there."

[QuidEst]

Cal nodded somberly, words being difficult under the circumstances. After some consideration, he did speak. "Thank you. We've put an end to him. We're going to review the notes he left, and make sure there aren't any tricks we've missed."

[ylvathrall]

The woman is quiet for a moment, and when she speaks next the words come out all in a rush, like she'd been holding them back until the dam broke. "I don't feel safe here anymore," she says. "Everyone had lost friends, loved ones to that madman. I'm scared that when they look at me, from now on they'll be thinking 'why is she alive when our daughter is dead?'" She shakes her head, shivering. "And...I don't want to be the victim. They'll look at me here and they'll always remember me like that, like some helpless girl who should have died but got out by luck."

[QuidEst]

"That's understandable. I don't know how practical it is for you to take advantage of, but we can certainly offer you a ride back with us," Cal replied, glancing over at Toby for confirmation.

[TheOneHawk]

Toby nods at Cal, continuing, "Can't say we'll all stick together after this, but I'd be happy to help you get set up elsewhere if that's what you'd want. Ain't a lot of places I haven't been."

[ylvathrall]

"I...thank you, thank you so much. There's not much here for me anymore. I can be ready to leave when you are." Aurelia takes another sip of tea. "I'll start packing my things, such as they are."

Back at the tavern, Petra walks in on the group with a sour expression. "We're supposed to go to the capital," she says without preamble. "Apparently the bit where this was supposed to be Stanimir's tower got the king's attention. He wants to award us honors and rewards, personally. The Order of the Falcon will be taking over the investigation of the tower itself."

[The Glyphstone]

Having worked his way through another two full meals in the meantime, Henry is feeling contentedly stuffed with his symbiote similarly quiescent and drowsy as it absorbs the tidal wave of nutrients He perks up at the mention of going to the capital - royal favor has the implication of money, gifts, all sorts of useful things. In addition, being recognized increases the chances of finding a patron to sponsor his research, and failing all else the capital will have actual alchemical shops instead of this backwater village. First things first, though.

"That's all well and good, but I don't think we've actually been paid for this job by the locals yet. Can we make sure to get that out of the way before galivanting off to the capital again?"

[ylvathrall]

"The person I spoke to didn't seem to think that would be possible," Petra replies. "Something about them wanting us there 'at our earliest convenience.' Apparently we're to be given that reward as well while we're there."

[The Hellbug]

While the others had been interrogating the the freed woman, Sidon had been spending his time building an impressive tab at the tavern. He barely notices Petra and the others come in except for the fact that Mab takes her place at his side, and after a whine his hand finds its familiar place rubbing her head.

"'Course they do," he slurs in response to the message from the capital, "the better to take the credit for putting down the 'rogue mage terrorizing Canila'"--he sets down his stein heavily on the counter--"'lookee here, the great heroes that slayed him. Can you even imagine how brave they must have been to face down that monster?' You know what I can imagine? How this'll be forgotten in a day, maybe two, and it'll leave the 'good folk of Canila' out here picking up the pieces."

He motions for another drink, eliciting a growl from his companion, but he ignores it for the moment.

[QuidEst]

Cal kept his peace. You did what you could do; you couldn't do more than that. At this point, he really wasn't sure what more could be done for the good folk of Canila. Having the 'heroes' stick around certainly wouldn't help. He just nodded vaguely, though, and got a drink of his own. "All the same, I don't think keeping them waiting will solve anything," he replied.

[The Glyphstone]

Henry harrumphs, not at all pleased with the answer but not seeing any way out of it. If his money was now in the capital, to the capital he would go, and hope the real point of all this wasn't lost amidst the hooplah.

"Well, that's that then. When the king says jump, us loyal subjects should not even have to ask how high. To the capital it is."