Seeing none of the other leap forward Gaarm speaks up. Well.... um. We are investigating a crime and heard you were an eyewitness to it. It has been mentioned that you witnessed Andrew... er I mean the Beast kill 10 people here? Is it true?
"Why should I tell you anything? You will find out at the trial tomorrow if you truly care." remarks Lazne, clearly uninterested in helping you without some sort of coercion (good or bad).
Gaarm's feels his blood begin to boil with rage at the man. His hand darts up and grabs him by his collar as he jerks him closer. Mere inches from his face. Because I have a feeling that Andrew didn't do what you are scapegoating him for. Now tell me what really happened here. Gaarm twists the man's collar slightly.
"..so we are going that route.."
Naxx stares at the man
"We've had a long, difficult day. I'm sure you don't want to make my friend here any more.....aggravated, don't you? If you just tell us what we want to know we all..including my friend here..will leave you alone"
The other men in the village quickly grab items and brandish them as makeshift clubs or shivs as Lazne tries to push Gaarm back away from him without a hint of fear in his eyes, but the big man is too strong.
Naxx's words seem to have no effect on assuaging the situation. In fact, they seem to worsen the situation. The people around begin to yell.
"Hey, you let him go!"
"You come to our village looking for trouble? You got it!"
"I'll f++$ you up, outsider!"
There is no need for more violence. My friend Gaarm has had a very rough day. Perhaps we put his strength towards helping out around here instead of busting heads. Do you have anything heavy that needs lifting? Or how about anyone injured? I can help with that.
Seeing that his words are not having the desired effect Tom sighs.
I will have no part in this fight. If you guys want to knock heads do it. Just don't kill each other and I will heal you up.
Seeing the anger in their eyes slowly backs away, sure, he won't initiate a fight, and he would help his comrades out if things sparked out of control, but till then, he would not be held accountable for sparking it up in the first place
The crowd seems to be too riled up for Sir Thomas' meek words to have any sway. One wrong word may cause the crowd to turn into a mob as the man in Gaarm's grasp keeps struggling.
Gaarm releases he man, hurling him to the ground. He turns towards the crowd and glares menacingly. His fangs glint in the sun's light.
I KNOW THAT THE BEAST IS INNOCENT IN THESE KILLINGS! ARE ALL OF YOU TOO AFRAID TO STEP FORWARD AND SPEAK? He waves his hand among the crowd.
He turns to Sir Thomas and the rest. Words are not reaching these people. They would rather watch a man hang than stand up for themselves and do what is right.....
"This is getting a bit out of hand..maybe we should leave for the time being."
As Gaarm releases the man and berates the villagefolk, the group thinks that there is probably little that they can do to garner any aid from the people here, especially from the man-handled witness.
Lazne brushes off his tunic and smooths out the shoulders before saying succinctly. "Ye shoul' leave, outsider."
Bah! Gaarm throws his hands into the air and points at all surrounding. You should all be ashamed. Allowing an innocent man to die. For what?
He turns to walk away and let someone else attempt to calm them down before his rage takes over further.
Walking for a small bit he begins to calm down slightly.
What happened? Why did I do that? I know better than to become so forceful so quickly..... His hand moves to his fangs and this rage and fear that has been building up in him since the prison took its toll on him.
He feels as if there is something else within him. Something that maybe joined him and left the prison with him from the spiked tomb that cursed him.
We could have handled that better. We will have to work extra hard with the rest of this case.
The group leaves the small village as the townsfolk warily watch them, mostly looking at Gaarm.
It seems that it is about midday, so they can probably investigate other possible witnesses.
When we are alone Naxx mentions
".....it's a bit..morally ambiguous...but I might be able to cast a charm on the next person we want to talk to..it might make them a bit easier to talk too.....If I can cast the spell without alerting them to the casting"
Gaarm holds his hand to his head as he looks a bit confused. Shrugging it off he mumbles. Perhaps it might be better if one of you does the talking next time.
Let's go to Hergstadt, perhaps we will do better there. In many ways charm is better than intimidating a person into submission. Let us try that next.
Gaarm lowers his head. Sorry, I don't know what came over me. How could all of these surrounding communities just let Andrew take the fall for this though?
As the group heads towards Hergstadt, they seem to come across a boneyard in the swampy region. A tiny, miserable island rises from the swamp, a tangle of trees covering its dour, reed-choked surface. Hundreds of fetishes hang from the trees—simple, roughly humanoid figures made of sticks and bound with twine. Larger fetishes are planted in the ground on various parts of the island, leaning drunkenly in the soft mud. A large nest built of sodden swamp wood sits high in the boughs of a trio of tangled trees on the northwest side of the isle.
Sir Thomas reaches down into the nest and picks up the colorful object laid within.
Nothing to his comrades, Eternal rest does not seem to have been eternal for six of the graves, they appear to have been tampered with
He also takes a gander at the grave yard, more south than his companion Thomas
"Thizzz izzz odd, zomeone camped here, but it zeemz long ago" as he surveys th area
Seeing his companions spread out Naxx also decides to take a look passing Sir Thomas looking at some webs and graves Naxx looks a bit further a head
As the graves are already being looked at he moves further towards the shore passing Nizvit
There is a boat here! Gaarm says as he grabs ahold of it and drags it out from the brush. There appears to be dried blood along the bottom of the coracle. The boat itself contains an oar, a moldy leather travel bag with a damp artisan’s outfit (a shirt, breeches, shoes, and a cloth apron) inside....
Gaarm leaps back and draws his weapon. His voice wavers slightly. ... This looks like a detached human face!
A length of rope stretches from the boat into the waters below. Gaarm firmly grasps ahold of the rope and begins to reel it in, knowing full well what is probably on the other end.
"Ah boat?! ..how could I have missed a boat.."
Naxx moves over to Gaarm to have a look at the boat
Thomas looks for tracks by the shore near the boat.
He hopes to determine number of people and perhaps size/type.
" Wait! ..what did you say?! ..A detached human face?"
" ...does it look like the face of Andrew? Did we just find some evidence that would suggest he didn't do some of the things they said he did?"
Gaarm continues to pull the rope from the water to see what surprises it may bring.
As Sir Thomas investigates the nest, he grabs the colorful thing in the bottom, pulling back a blood-soaked piece of a jester's tunic. As he looks closer, he sees that it was still attached to a corpse!
The corpse wears a colorful patchwork coat with numerous pockets holding an oil of keen edge, a package of bodybalm (Adventurer’s Armory 9), a silver hip flask still containing brandy worth 30 gp, and a crimson felt purse containing 31 pp and 22 gp. A masterwork shortsword and a wand of ghost sound (22 charges) lie in the nest nearby.
---
At the coracle (a small, circular one-person boat), Gaarm pulls up a heavy sack. The sack is very large (big enough to hold a Medium-sized
humanoid) and has dried blood soaked into its fabric. The sack holds some rope, a gag, a rusted lantern, a trio of heavy knives, and a rusted shovel.
---
Nizvit examines the vial, but doesn't understand what is in it.
---
Gaarm looks over the detached face and finds that it looks nothing like Andrew and Sir Thomas cannot find any tracks in the area.
"I have the distinct feeling we've found everything here we are going to find. We better hurry and go to some of the other places to uncover more evidences that Andrew didn't do the things those people accussed him off. Unless someone has a better idea I suggest we go to the sanctuary to look at the arson charge?"
Perhaps we aught to find out who this body belongs to as well as the face.
We should push on to Hergstadt where he supposedly murdered six children? See if anyone knows anything there.
Gaarm drops the rope. This just causes more questions and less answers.
As you approach Hergstag, you see two women tending to a small garden near a cottage. They are older women and there appears to be a familial resemblence.
As they see you, they stand and wave. "Hail strangers. What brings you to Hergstag?" the brunette asks.
Gaarm is extremely unfamiliar with the area. Never even heard of this town....
Gaarm waves from the small distance to the two women. Perhaps it might be best if one of you spoke to the people this time.
"Perhapzzzz, town not know of uzzz then? it maybe good thing?" the red lizzard adds
Gaarm smiles down at the small kobold. Perhaps it would be good for you to speak to more of the townsfolk Nizvit. Get over a bit of you shyness. He places his large hands on the kobold and pushes him forward, towards the awaiting women, not really giving the kobold much of a chance to resist.
The two women seem to adore the small kobold. "Oh look! A red-scaled one! He must have come down from the mountains." the blonde coos as the brunette looks more at the strapping form of Gaarm and remains wordless, though it is apparent that she is impressed.
Naxx remembers hearing something about this area from his travels long ago
"Excuse me beautiful ladies, but are you by any chance related to each other? I heard this was the place where we could find the 3 most prettiest sisters in all the land..and it seems we've come to the right place..other then that there's only 2 of you here"
"Ah yes. Our sister is inside cooking lunch." remarks the blonde woman. "I am Starle. This is my sister Garrow." she says, motioning to the brunette. "Our other sister is Flicht."
Garrow looks at you and sees your cargo (a dead body) and asks. "What... uhh... is it you need?" she says, making sure the sickle is in her hand.
Nizvit tries to protest, but he is no match for Gaarm's "enthusiasm"
At first he thought they were going to try and trample him, but all too soon he was way to flustered. This was not normal human behaviour!
"Gaarm! Help!" in vane he calls out. he sighs
"My name izzz Nizzvit. Pleazzzed to meet you!" he tries to give them a toothy smile
Gaarm smiles devilishly at the little kobold, his fangs glinting in the light. You are alright Nit. Ask them about Andrew, just.....be yourself.
He waves his hands in a shooing motion as he throws a wink to Garrow.
"Nizzvit not good with wordzzz.... bookzzzz, yezz, wordzzz.... not zzzo muchzzzz... Maybe Naxxzzz can zpeak for Nizzzvit? "
"I'm sure you heard of me? Naxx the magnificiant? No..Are you sure..ah, well..it doesn't matter....are you sure you don't know who I am..... I'm a traveling story teller ..always in search of new interesting tales spread around the country. These are my companions. Do you happen to have encountered anything uncanny, a magnificent tale worthy of sharing? Maybe something funny, or horrific or just plain unbelievable?"
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"I'm not sure we are quite the people to have a sorry that would impress, Sir Max. " says the blonde. "We are simple women living alone out here after the town fled to Lepidstadt. We opened a windmill on the edge of town, perhaps you saw that? " she asks.
"That was quite interesting actually! " chimes the brunette. "The paperwork to get it approved was delayed and we had to travel to the capital to get it! " She starts.
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Sorry, we didn't pass a windmill coming in. Perhaps you can show it to us sometime.
He clears his throat. Why did the people flee to Liepstadt? We are not from around here.