You seem to have calmed the children somewhat. They are still far from happy, but they seem to understand that you are trying to be encouraging. The little boy asks you, "But where are Mummy and Dada?"
The boy, who introduces himself as Grayson, replies first to Wheeler, "Oh no sir, please don't do that! Didn't you hear me? She's coming to arrest you - she's just gathering up a big posse first since everyone in town knows that you lot are trained fighters. And - much as I hate to say it - I doubt the sheriff will be able to keep control over them once they spot you. It may start out as a posse, but it'll be a mob by the time they get their hands on you!"
To Robbin, Grayson answers thus: "Mr. Monchello? Why, everyone in town knows him! Ain't you seen him yet? Y' can't miss that ponytail, that's fer sure - me cousin Rudy says it makes 'im look like he belongs at court in Taldor - though I'm sure Rudy ain't never seen no court nowhere! Anyway, he wouldn't make fun of Monchello's ponytail in his earshot - you can be sure of that - Mr. Borvious Monchello is a big shot around here, proprietor of the Ilsurian Storage & Hauling Co. - I'm sure you've seen the big warehouse down by the docks when you came to town? That's 'im alright. Him and his wife, Robella Monchello, they run most of the cartage and shipping 'round here, in fact, now that Mr. Braeton is dead, why, they'll have most of it, I reckon."
He stops for a moment, as if newly struck by something odd, before continuing, "Well, and ain't that strange? For that's the very crime that Mr. Monchello says you lot are responsible for! Yep, that's right, the sheriff don't much keep her office window shut, on account o' normally there ain't no such goings on 'round here, so I was able to hear quite a bit while I "practiced" tying my shoe outside. Seems that Mr. Monchello says that he and his men caught you murdering ole Braeton and his wife. He told the sheriff that y'killed most of his men too, but that he managed to - barely - escape with his life. Honestly, the sheriff sounded pretty skeptical, until Monchello told her that there were witnesses - the Braeton children themselves! They weren't, were they...? Witnesses, I mean?" Grayson trails off, hopefully, as if wanting you to reassure him that the children did not in fact witness you murdering their parents.
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Perhaps we should have solid proof before going to the sheriff. Greyson, do you think you could help us sneak off to Mr. Ponytails house? Hopefully we can find so evidence backing up our claim. OH and we didn't kill all his lackies, just the ones with no brains. One is should still be stuck to the stairs in the manor.
"Well, I can show you where Monchello's warehouse is. His wife's shop is next door, but I don't know where they live."
Wheeler, Raynard, Ninnic, and Robbin quickly return to the Braeton Manor, where they find their comrades still waiting for them. Young Grayson accompanies them, in order to lead them to the Monchello warehouse, but he seems reluctant to enter the house, mumbling something about "already being in enough trouble."
Inside, the scene is one of carnage, with the corpses of the group's earlier foes lying strewn hither and thither. The one surviving prisoner is long gone. The two children upstairs continue to blubber for their parents and their terror is renewed by the reappearance of Robbin, whom they seem to perceive as the ringleader of the gang that seems bent on kidnapping them. These anxieties are only heightened when they hear that the pathfinders wish to bring them along. "No, sirs, please. Our parents will pay you whatever you want! Please, just find them and they'll pay you! Honest - there's no need to steal us! You aren't going to feed us to that sphinx, are you?"
As the pathfinders begin to look around the rest of the house, it doesn't take long, nor impressive talents for searching, to discover that something terrible has happened here!
In the master bedroom just next to the children's room, an oversized bed rests in the middle of the room, and two wardrobes face each other on opposites of the room. This room is a scene of macabre theatre, with two corpses: a man and a woman. The woman's body sits on the floor with her arm and face draped on the bed. The man reclines in a chair, with his eyes closed as if resting. Rapiers, wet with sticky blood, hang from their limp grasps—as if they had been fighting and finally succumbed to their wounds.
Downstairs, in the servant's quarters, the pathfinders find a modest bedroom with a chest of drawers, and a few simple paintings on the wall to lend it some cheer. The bodies of an elderly servant couple, recently slain, are a shocking contrast to the tidiness of the rest of the manor. The manner in which the bodies have fallen shows the man was killed trying to shield his wife from further violence.
Finally, also downstairs, there is a large and well-appointed office, with a large desk sitting in the center of the room. The walls are taken up with bookshelves and trophies and curios put on display. The desk has been rifled through and papers are scattered everywhere. One piece of documentation is inside a metal scroll tube with a scrimshaw cap carved with the likeness of a turtleback ferryboat. It contains Arhaneem Braeton’s last will and testament. According to this document, in the event of Braeton’s death, his business is held in trust by the town council for Braeton’s two children. If there is cause to suggest the business may deteriorate before they come of age, the council has the option of selling the business on their behalf.
The pathfinders agree that the best course of action is to bring the children to the sheriff and head out the door, children and will in tow. The children resist fiercely, screaming ever louder for their parents and just as terrified of Robbin as ever. Indeed, the prospect of Robbin and his henchmen kidnapping them seems to have them in full panic and, as the group enters the street, their screams seem likely to garner attention from the neighboring houses. Thankfully, it does not appear that either child noticed the gruesome corpses in the other rooms as you carried them out of the house.
Your erstwhile guide, young Grayson, blanches when he hears the pathfinders' plan. "Did ye na hear me? Monchello's already fingered ye fer the murders 'n the sheriff's set t' arrest the lot o' ye! Anyways, suit yerselves - I reckon I've paid me friend's debt - an' if yer all bound and determined to find yerselves way t' the gallows, well, I want no part o' that! I just ask that y' not mention my name when they put ya on trial - that Monchello ain't one to trifle with and he'll send one o' his skulk lackeys after me fer sure!" He wishes the pathfinders luck and, with a shake of his head, departs.
As the group heads down the road, the commotion from the children quickly draws local householders to their doors and windows, many of whom seem at first inclined to intervene but draw back fearfully when they recognize the well-armed and bloodied pathfinders. As the group passes, they can hear angry mutters behind them: "Them's the Braeton children!" Not just murderers and pickpockets, but now kidnapping in broad daylight!" "Where's the sheriff when we need her?!?"
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it's not long before the group spots the sheriff herself, accompanied by a small squad of constables, marching grim-faced towards your direction. When they spot you, from some distance, a cry goes up. The sheriff immediately blows three quick alarm blasts on her horn and dispatches two constables as runners, each of whom takes off at top speed in different directions, before turning to the pathfinders and shouting out, "The jig's up! You're under arrest! Throw down all your weapons and other gear and surrender to the law!"
When the children spy the sheriff, they scream at the top of their lungs, pleading, "Save us! Oh please save us from these villains!"
The children, hearing Raynard's comment, shriek to the sheriff: "Save us from them, oh please save us!"
The sheriff gestures to her constables to cover her and steps forward, arms crossed in front of her. "Well...? I'm listening. This had better be good..."
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So, bad news first. The kids are orphans now. We found their parents and a will after a scuffle with some intruders. The curious part, and the children can verify this part, is that Mr. Monchello wasn't at the manor. There were some goons and someone who looked an awful lot like Robbin. This makes me wonder how Mr. Monchello could make such bold accusations. The will turns control of the Braeton estate over to the council to hold for the children, but gives them the option to sell it. An arrangement I would guess benefits Mr. Monchello... saying this all together also has me wondering if the will is real. The office was ransacked. Why was something like that left out?
There was also a young lad who mentored being afraid of Mr. Monchello's skulks and we have bumped into a lot of skulls as we've been investigating. I know none of this on it's own proves his guilt or involvement, but it's a awful lot of coincidences pointing his way.
The sheriff takes the bad news about the Braetons with a grim expression, glancing over her shoulder to be sure that the children are out of earshot. She takes the will and examines it, then returns back to the kids to confer with them - warning the pathfinders to keep their hands where she can see them while she does so. After a few minutes she returns, her expression even grimmer.
"Is this all you have? I've looked at the will - it will require further investigation to confirm whether or not it is authentic - but by itself it's pretty meager evidence. Since the children are minors, it's quite reasonable by local law and custom for the council to hold the Braeton property in trust for them. It may be that this works out to Monchello's interest too, eventually, but that is far from sufficient to accuse one of the leading citizens of Ilsurian of murder!"
"As for your observation that Monchello has some skulks working for him, yes, I'm well aware of that. It's true that some of the skulk community around here have criminal associations - as sheriff I have plenty of experience with them - but it would be unfair to tar all the skulks with the same brush. And, as I recall, you lot were the ones found together with the skulks who were robbing old Walder's pawn shop! Monchello wasn't anywhere near that crime scene - but you were!"
"But, by far the most troubling fact is that these kids here are the first eyewitnesses to any of these crimes we've had. And they claim that you - " here, Sheriff Feldane points to Robbin - "attacked the house and told them you were with the carnival. They are quite certain that it was you. And then they say that the rest of you - " she points to the rest of the group - "were his henchmen who came in later to support him in the attack on the house."
"When I take this first-hand evidence from the children, and combine it with all the other crimes that you or the carnival have been linked to in one way or another circumstantially, I'm inclined to arrest the lot of you. You can present your side of things at trial and let justice take its course."
She stops and looks expectantly at all of you. "Any final comments before I take you into custody?"
And yet, at the time they claim Robbin was capturing them, Robbin was here in town. How could that be? We say a man, who we could not identify, shift himself into the apperance of Robbin- right before our eyes. Check out that story Mates, it's quite clear that something else fishy is going on here.
[dice=Diplo to Aid]1d20+2
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Having been keeping quiet till now and with this being his first mission as a Pathfinder, this predicament is stressing Robbin out. It's obvious that he fears failing the Venture Captain.
"Holy paper and pen, PFs! SKWARCK! If we go to jail we'll never get this birthday card Robbin holds up the card to Venture Captain Dreng's granny in time. Skwarck. She'll blame Dreng for it being late because he chose poorly on the team to deliver it. Skwark. And we'll suffer all the more because of it. No more relaxing jobs for us. NOPE! SKWARCK! NO SIRI! We had made great time from Absalom and even had time to spare. SKWARCK! We should have left this business to the sheriff. NO! We should have avoided the carnival like Xeveos Mann hinted at. Skwardk Lucky him getting a call off to another mission. Robbin groans a mornfull skwarck shaking his head in his hands. And I was the one who thought solving a murder could be fun! Why'd Mr. Ponytail have to pretend to be me. Wheeler and Ninnic stand out just as much as me. . . . and the harrow card we found it misaligned. . .our help was not a benefit to Ms. Delesan . . . .
OOC I'm hopping the kids may notice speech differences or that the sheriff will know where the carnival came from and that if we came from Absalom and the carnival came from somewhere else or anything that may help withing the tactile clues we've found.
Sheriff Feldane looks uncertainly at the group. You sense that perhaps she has her own misgivings about Monchello's story, but he is a big shot in the town and you are outsiders. However, when Robbin mentions the birthday card for Dreng's grandmother, her ears perk up. "Right, then. You are all accused of serious crimes - I can't very well let you just walk about freely. I should really just arrest you and let the magistrate sort it out. But - between us - I've long suspected that Monchello is playing a dirty game; unfortunately, he has the magistrate in his pocket - you won't get a fair trail that way, that's for sure. And, if it's true that Monchello and his minions are behind the crime wave, well, I'll need some real evidence, irrefutable stuff that even the magistrate couldn't ignore. Now, as the face of the law here, I can't very well go poking around looking for that sort of evidence... but you could... So, here's my offer: I'll give you two hours to see what you can come up with at Monchello's warehouse while I stall the mob. In return, you leave the birthday card with me as collateral - just to make sure that you don't all decide to run while you can. Agreed? She holds out her hand expectantly for the card.
It takes only a few minutes to get to the location of the Ilsurian Storage and Hauling offices. The warehouse stands next to a small curiosity shop.