Fhingle looks for some more teeth to help Saul.
"I cannot understand you when battle is upon me, I .... change..." Fhingle says sheepishly
"Hmmmmm, it would be helpful to communicate, can you understand anything when "changed" maybe we could come up with a simple gesture system. Ahhh, sorry heal away," Salonius says, shaking his head before his mind takes him down another interesting rabbit hole.
|
"Thanks, Little Mac."
Saul leads the group back to Zea's apartment, still holding the little fey.
"Zea, ma'am, I think we got to the bottom of the problem. Tell me, did you say that all of the bodies found up til now were missing teeth? This guy and eight or so of his buddies seem to have penchant for removing them. Nearly all of the little beasties are dead. Two got away. And we have this one, and I think it is only fair that it goes to the family's of those that were killed for retribution."
Salonius raises his hand, glances at it sheepishly puts it down and coughs, "Ahhh, I have a moral objection to that. I can perhaps except torture if it seems likely to save more people, by catching the rest of these things, for example; But not for some sort of hollow revenge, why make the victims of these things more like them? I cannot believe that anyone has ever become a better person by torturing something, I can believe they could become worse."
As they made their way back to Zea’s place Jhen is preoccupied by his teeth. He practices biting, grinding, and pushing on them with his tongue. Satisfied he finally remembers, ”Thanks Fingle, everything appears to be in working order.
Fhingle bows a little to Jhen.
"You are more than welcome, sorry I couldn't help you more back there when those things attacked. Do we know why they would attack here?"
Zea is appalled by the ugly fey.
|
|
"S, I don't like torture either. That's not what I am suggesting... Just that we are going to have to kill this thing eventually, because we can't let it go, and we might as well let the tieflings do it. After we get some questions in."
Saul would like to slap the little thing to try to get it to wake up.
The fey looks angrily at Saul.
"Mmmm, well let's just handle the "retribution" for them, when we must. It can't be a coincidence that they are showing up here, must be some reason right? How long did you say the murders had been going on for Zea? And I don't suppose, longshot I know, anything to do with teeth has occurred in the area that might have set these events in motion?" Salonius says, fingers rapping upon his chin as he contemplates the creature.
"It started soon after the Thrune came to town." Zea answers. "And I know of no incident with teeth."
"Thrune," Jhen says with the venom of a curse. "All our blighted troubles began with that man. And I fear they will not end until he is gone."
"My life was bad before but I understand how he made things worse." Fhingle says
"I doubt it, now just hold him still and if he does not start talking I will pry his eyes out as he is of no use to us, but fey eyes have magical properties," he produces his dagger and moves towards the creature searching its reactions to see if it understands him and then putting the blkade away in his wrist sheath.
"Anyone think he understood that? Maybe I was not very convincing?"
The fey either doesn't understand, or doesn't want to understand. Besides it making angry noises you get not response.
"Lets pull its teeth," Jhen suggests with a wicked grin.
"Now that I think on it I am sure I recall reading that tooth fairies are fey created when a willful child’s tooth (or, rarely, a whole child) is buried in a place with strong connections to the mysterious realm of the fey. So given there were eight of these things perhaps we are looking for the body of a murdered child? Salonius says grimly,
"Zea have any children died around here recently? Or can you think of any area that feels off somehow? Perhaps rumoured to be haunted, or something along those lines?"
Zea shrugs. "No, I haven't heard of something like that. We cremate our dead. No one would bury a child."
"Then I confess to being at a loss. I would suggest releasing this thing and following it to find their lair, but I cannot see that going smoothly, especially given it can turn invisible. There should only be one left but even one would be dangerous... Anyone have any ideas? Maybe we should get a cage for this thing for the time being?"
"Could be a human child or Halfling child that was buried wrongly?" Fhingle offers up
Meliandri shudders. "Do we really want that thing 'anging around our 'ideout? 'E probably does not 'ave the spells prepared for convincing it to be our friend and learning its language, and we cannot trust that it will be secure if we do not 'ave it with us."
"Both of those would require much more powerful magic than I can muster, and cost more than we have as scrolls. The charm spell I use will not work on fey, I am a relative novice as wizardry goes," Salonius says, still pondering.
"Wait! Saul don't you have a magic tracking ring? Can we change it from Meliandri to this bugger? Or maybe trick the ring by hiding Meliandri's aura and securing some of her hair or some such to this thing?"
Looking to Meliandri for assent Salonius casts detect magic and examines the ring intently hoping to discern its properties, specifically whether it can be changed to a different user, or whether it can be made to track a lock of Meliandri's hair or some such.
"If it tracks the biggest source of Mel's, there is a lead lined room at the Academy that ought to prevent it tracking her and maybe cause it to track a lock of hair. Better if wee can shift its target to the tooth fairy, but of course neither may be possible."
"Mel's... Did your mother give you any jewellery and, could you take it off? I believe the ring is not tracking you, but a piece of jewellery... I believe this is a variant, but it might be something you find difficult to remove? And if so how would you feel about us putting it on this thing so we can track it?"
Fhingle looks around the room they are in while the larger folk discuss tracking this tiny creature.
The room contains only the most necessary furniture. Two chairs, a table and an old shelf for some dishes that have seen a lot of use. No comfort is found in this dwelling.
Meliandri fidgets with the ring her mother gave her. It spins on her finger just fine, but when she tries to get it over her knuckle, seems to stick there. She gives up and shrugs. "Jewelry often gets stuck. A little soap and water usually works, but I 'ave not 'ad a reason to take it off." She shrugs and grins.
"If it is what I believe it to be Saul might have better luck removing it while wearing his ring. Give it a try Saul." Salonius says carefully avoiding naming the rings.
"Well... Magic can be funny like that I guess. I suppose similar rings might have been used for tracking, ummm, reluctant guests, so only their jai... Hosts could remove them. it might prove pretty convenient for our purposes since it will mean that little flying murder fairy cannot remove it at its leisure."
"So you can track this ring?" Fhingle asks while jumping to see what is going on
"Saul can, we'll have Peeko follow it to and if, or when, it looses him we can utilize the ring. if tghat is alright with you Mels?"
Mels pulls her hand away from Saul's, putting both it and her other hand on her hip and looking at him severely. "In most circles, it is customary to ask a lady before removing 'er jewelry." She holds the severe look for a moment before her glare cracks into a laugh. "I am just playing. Give it another go."
She offers her hand once again.
The ring comes off without issues, as Saul tries.
|
|
"Okay, nice one, S and Mels! This will probably do the trick then. A little magic to make a gumshoe's life easier."
Saul slides the ring up the tooth fairy's leg as far as it can go. Confident that the ugly thing won't be able to remove it, Saul goes over to the window, carefully unties him while maintaining a grapple, and throws him out.
"Peeko, it is up to you, now."
Salonius studies the tooth fairy looking for a spot that might fit the ring, unsure whether it will resize and wondering whether it would work as a bracelet for such a small creature, or some such.
The tooth fairy is immediately off as it is released. Bickering all the way it disappears in the darkness. Which might be a problem for the pursuit, as in this poor part of town the few oil lamps barely light the rooms, much less the streets outside.
"Stay with us Peeko, it is unlikely you could tail it if it went invisible. Do you think we should give it some time to reach its destination or follow now? I probably lean towards the former...' Salonius says, looking mainly to Saul given his profession.
|
|
Saul looks out the window again. The creature is already out of sight. "Let's just go now. It is long gone and it won't know we are coming after it, unless it did indeed speak common and understood our every plan. Remember that there are a couple more who escaped as well, so everyone keep your wits about you."
Saul leads the party out into the street and concentrates. Just like when Mels was wearing the ring, Saul can feel it. He sets off in that direction.