He did not doubt Janasen's sincerity. The roguish man was nothing BUT sincerity. But clearly, he did not know quite of what he apoke of with Radim. The last (and only other) person who had said he had Radim's back had... He... He...
"N-No." It was for their own good. "No."
Radium, Janasen, Baris and Kendra sit down to eat, we are merry and enjoy the fact of being alive and Baris tries to get everyone to join in singing and later dancing. We could still be doing this 2 hours later, though lets say an hour later we (Radim, Janasen and Baris) are settled down in one of the studies enjoying a good hard drink. Baris finally got down the good stuff from his perch. Baris brings up the conversation again.
"So you think that Tev and Alyssa are plotting, possible our deaths?
I don't think so, but then I didn't think I needed to be wary of the professors associates.
Radim, Janasen do you trust me or even each other?
Janasen do you trust the other three?"
Assuming Radim brings up his previous points
I know they're up to something... Think about it. The elf is constantly running off. He never listens to anything anyone says and loses his temper without any provication. He and the tiefling are always talking in their own language in front of us: why? What are they hiding? What are they saying that they can't trust us to overhear? And when the elf made that remark about bashing Baris' head in a few minutes ago... I-I think they might be trying to kill us all."
"So do you think it would be good to clear the air with them and talk about these things?"
Radim did not linger throughout the dinner. He merely helped himself to a small plate of food before scuttling off after barely touching what he had acquired.
He was not difficult to find in the study afterwards, being curled up with a book near the fireplace. The offer for alcohol was politely refused (the last thing Radim ever wanted was to have his wits impaired). He did not, surprisingly, scurry off as the others settled in.
His explanation (or rant, if one viewed it in such a manner) was given up again of his distrust of both the elf and the tiefling. When his piece was done and Baris' offer for further inquiry was given up, Radim could only give him an incredulous look. "Ask? They'll deny it." Only the truly depraved or suicidal would ever willingly admit to such accusations.
Tev, Alyssa, and Tuoni get back to the house. If you search out some of the others or just listen with intent you would hear Janasen and Baris in a game of jests in one of the studies.
As Alyssa, Tuoni, and Tev entered the house carrying their burden of the tied up and gagged (and hopefully still unconscious Gibs) all Alyssa could do was worry about how bad this was going to look to their comrades. She'd been hoping that perhaps they would be lucky and the others would have gone to sleep already so that they could be woken up and briefed one at a time to avoid a panic, but the signs of candlelight still flickered in several of the windows and sounds of conversation and laughter were obvious the moment they entered the door.
With a look to her cohorts in this plan she made a gesture that they should carefully put Gibs down and move forward to speak with the others without displaying the unconscious man for all to see.
After they were thus unburdened, Alyssa strode forward and came into the doorway of the room where she heard the others talking. She made no effort to hide her wounds, the most apparent of which would be the long cut over her eyebrow which had painted the side of her face red. Her slashed wrist she kept discreetly in the folds of her cloak.
"We've apprehended the vandal." She spoke before anyone could have a chance to comment on her appearance. "But we will need your help to ensure he's taken to justice." She nodded to Janasen. "We are hoping that you could help us in explaining the situation to your friend the sheriff, since we haven't had the chance to make his acquaintance."
She cast a quick glance to Radim by the fireplace before her eyes fell downward in a gesture very much like the many he'd done in the presence of others. She was ashamed to be in such a state and felt she had no right to ask for his aid.
Janasen Gasps at Alyssa wounds completely ignoring her words thinks for a moment then walks over to Alyssa "You remind me of a friend I grew up with. always getting into some kind of scrape. This one time she picked a fight with a guy twice her size, put up one hell of a fight. She was quite agile in a fight jumping around keeping her foes off guard was her specialty if it had not been for foul play she most like would have one. while he is telling this story Alyssa feels the pain from her wounds fade completely.
Two things surprised Tev in the exchange between Alyssa and Janasen. The first was that Alyssa didn't even mention her need for healing to anyone, and the other was that Janasen had the power to give it. While Janasen's reminiscence was of some interest, Tev was focused on the more pressing matter of Gibs. In his mind, he went over the details of what had happened, filling the gaps he had missed with the terse explanation Alyssa had given them on the way back to the house.
"Thanks for your help, Janasen," he began as he beckoned the Varisian to come take a closer look at Gibs. "Come check this out." He started pointing at the objects of interest as he showed each to Janasen so the man could have the whole story. "We spotted him while on the stakeout, and because he was acting strangely, Alyssa volunteered to follow him. He came at Alyssa with this razor when she asked him if something was wrong, so we ran after them to help. That wound on him came from Tuoni's sword. It took me two tries to knock him out with a Color Spray. He was carrying this waterskin full of blood, and Alyssa and I could both tell that he was being controlled by some sort of very powerful enchantment magic that is somehow tied to Harrowstone; that's why we didn't kill him." He stopped to take a deep breath after spouting out all that. "Think you can persuade the sheriff to believe all this?"
Alyssa blinked in surprise as she felt the pain fade away supernaturally as Janasen spoke to her. A quick glance down to her wrist was proof enough to her to confirm that he had healed her. The wound was completely gone, though the dried blood remained. She decided to wait to cast Prestidigitation on herself until after they'd had a chance to speak with the sheriff.
"My thanks." she said, "I hadn't known you could do that..." Thinking over his words she reflected that there was not much she knew about any of these people yet...had she not been so set on leaving just hours before, she would have smirked at the pattern her own thoughts were taking. First she thought of Tev and Tuoni as friends, and now she was entertaining thoughts of getting to know the others better.
She listened as Tev recounted the events of the stake out, hanging her head in shame when he revealed her poor choice in inquiring after Gibs' instead of just following him.
"If it hadn't been for Tuoni shielding me with his own body and Tev's fast casting...I and the rest of us could have died...." She murmured softly.
Jansen listens intently to Tev's explanation of what had happened. After Tev finishes Janasen responds "It would seem you had a pretty rough night. Convincing the sheriff shouldn't be a problem. " looking at the unconscious body Janasen continues "I will return shortly with the sheriff. with that Janasen heads out.
After Janasen leaves, in a slight drunken stupor, Baris walks up to each individually or as a group if needed. To Tev, Alyssa and Tunoi. "I am sorry for my previous behavior, I don't know exactly what is wrong with me, but I will try to keep it under control. Please forgive me."
Also he will ask Alyssa, "How are you feeling, you look all cut up, what did the one you capture do to you?"
As you arrive to the house, Gibs begins to stir. Shortly after your conversation with everyone else and Janasen leaves to go get the Sheriff, the effects of the Color Spray finally wear off. Gibs wakes with a start and looks around himself, seeing all of you, but especially Alyssa and Kendra, and starts screaming and thrashing as best as he can against his restraints. he screams at the top of his lungs and then begins to bang his head against the ground, continually screaming obscenities and guttural gibberish, every once and a while interjecting the above phrase. He begins to bleed from his head as he bangs it.
While Gibs was certainly helping to prove the executors' point with this behavior, they didn't need him bashing his own brains out before the sheriff could get there. In response, Tev ran to his room and grabbed the pillow off his bed to bring back. "Help me hold him down, will you?" he asked the others present (save for Kendra). He put the pillow underneath Gibs' head so the man couldn't give himself any more blunt trauma on the floor. The pillow would get bloody but Tev could fix that. If Tev, Tuoni, Alyssa, and Baris all put their weight on one corner, Gibs should be well enough restrained. If that did not work or if the man looked like he was about to somehow burst through or overpower them, Tev could and would try Color Spray one more time.
Alyssa was glad to see Baris was feeling better, even if he was slightly drunk. She'd been about to reply to his questions to recount the tale they'd just let Janasen know when Gibs awoke. Her reaction was to immediately sit on the bound man's chest so that he couldn't rise somehow. She'd been trying to figure out a way to keep his head from thrashing when Tev quick thinking resulted in a pillow under their captives head.
She gave a rueful look to the others. "He's not as hard to hold down as a drunken half orc is." she gave in explanation for her actions. "It would seem our gag has little effect." she said in an aside to Tev. Gibs howling was easily loud enough to wake the... She didn't let herself finish that thought.
You are able to restrain him and keep him from completely banging his brains out. Gibs continues to fight until the old guy is tuckered out and stops screaming, but keeps a wary eye on the women in the room, occasionally giving a thrash and a grunt. After about an hour Janasen and the sheriff come bursting through the door. The sight of the sheriff sets Gibs off again, screaming obscenities and about killing her, the same old tune. He looks as if he's trying to get at the sheriff, but the restraints and the weight of the entire party keep him from getting anywhere. Sheriff Benjan just stands there for a second, jaw dropped. "Gibs, what in the name of the gods has gotten into you!? Shut your mouth and calm down!" Seeing no reaction from Gibs, he looks to the party. "Janasen here explained what happened. So besides him acting like a crazy person what's your proof that he defaced the statue? Where's this water skin?"
Tev produced the water skin full of blood and showed it to the sheriff. He also pointed out the bloody razor and the dried blood on Alyssa where Gibs had cut her, and the wound on Gibs that had come from Tuoni's sword.
"Since no one's been seeing any corpses or wounds as the source of the blood that's been painted on the statue, it should be safe to assume the vandal kept it in a skin. As for Gibs's behavior, we can detect that some very powerful enchantment magic, somehow tied to Harrowstone, is controlling him. I saw him wandering around town late on the first night I got into town, just like we saw him doing tonight, but didn't bother him then."
As Gibs starts going crazy, Baris goes to grapple the tied up thug, to secure him and pin him. Baris will knock the poor fellow out before letting him bash his brains in, nonleathal blows...
Grapple check.
Once things have settled down, Baris nods his head towards the sheriff in recognition.
Since he was already tied up, Baris had little trouble knocking Gibs out and keeping him down. The sheriff nods back in recognition of Baris. "So you're a part of this group? I would have thought you long gone after the professor died." Taking his attention back to the objects being handed to him, he looks at the razor and the skin with a grimace.
"Well, this helps me with another case. It seems that he's been collecting this blood from local animals. One of my patrols found a rat with a very precise slit across it's throat. Most of the time a dead rat doesn't warrant much notice, but he thought it odd that there wasn't a whole lot of blood around it, or that it didn't have any teeth marks. Then last night someone reported one of their goats had been slit open, most of the blood splattered around strange like, but none of the meat taken, like they were just killing it for the hell of it."
Looking down at the now unconscious Gibs, he grunted, "Now maybe we can get him to the jail so when he wakes up we can question him." Sheriff Benjan tosses the shackles down next to Baris, "Here, put these on him, and I wouldn't mind some help carrying him over to the jail just in case he decides to wake up again. Don't want anything new to scare the people here."
And with the help of the party you manage to get Gibs to the jail without anymore events. You all stay at the jail, sleeping on whatever you can find, awaiting the coming morning. As the glow of the sun begins to protrude from the bars in the windows, a groggy Gibs yells out from his cell. "OOOOWWW! What in the hell is going on here!? Sheriff, why am I in here?" He looks around the room and sees your party. Glaring angrily at the group, he places a hand on the wound that Touni gave him as well as touches the part of his head that he was bashing. Through gritted teeth, he growls "Which one of your foreigners did this to me? I knew you were all up to no good, and now I'm behind bars where you should be. Sheriff, tell me what's going on here, NOW!" He glares at your group one more time before shifting his gaze to the sheriff.
The sheriff looks at him and says in a cool voice, "Why don't you tell me, Gibs? They say they found you with a razor and a water skin full of blood walking towards the statue. Have you been making the marks on the statue? And who is 'she'? The one who has to die?" Gibs looks perplexed, then angry. "Sheriff, I have no idea what you're talking about! I went to bed in my own bed and then woke up here, they must have drug me out of my bed after they hit me with something. They're probably the ones messing everything up and bringing zombies and all sorts of craziness to the town. They're liars and they're up to no good, sheriff! You need to arrest them, not me!!" Gibs looks back at the group. "You'd better tell him the truth now or so help me god I'll kill you all myself!"
"Where would I go Benjans, the professor was the closest thing I had as a father and my master still is in the area."
Baris throws the shackles on Gibs then lifts him up on his own. Though he gladly accepts help.
_________________________________
To Gibs when he wakes up and after his tirade, "Really you are going to threaten a bruiser of the guard? Let alone well armed foreigners? He may be in his right mind now, though it is still a sad sad place."
Tev didn't think that threatening Gibs was the right tactic, at least not yet. "You know, Gibs, we actually believe you. No way were you yourself back there. It isn't your fault, but it's not our doing, either. Someone or something else is responsible. For your sake as well as the professor's, we're here to find out what, and put a stop to it." To the sheriff he added, "I doubt you'll find any signs of breaking and entry at his house, wherever it is."
Gibs didn't seem to appreciate either the threat nor the good cop routine. He was still pissed. "Well if whatever happened isn't my g$~ d~*ned fault then why am I in here?! And why am I hurt? Which one of you did this to me?!"
The sheriff stood up. "Shut up, Gibs." He walked over between the cell and the group, stood there pondering with a hand on one hip and another scratching his chin stubble. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. These people may not be from here, but I've fought alongside with at least a couple of them, they could have turned on me or anyone else then. And the rest of them have alibis for what happened with the undead, I already checked. I'm not convinced that they did or didn't do it either. But I doubt this one would cut herself with a razor just to prove you guilty." He said that as he pointed to Alyssa.
"I'll tell you what, Gibs, I'm going to take a run by your shack and take this group with me. If what they say is true then maybe there is something around there that can help. That and we'll all go to the statue together and take a real look. I've been sending deputies this last few days and they've come up dry, maybe I'll have better luck. I'll be watching the whole time, so no ability to plant evidence or anything like that. I'll take a deputy along with me as an extra pair of eyes." Looking at your group, Benjan takes a hard look at each one of you. "I honestly don't want to believe that any of this is true, I wish it was just a couple of damn bored kids. You're all coming with me, this isn't a request. You can help, but I'm going to keep an eye on you. One of my deputies, Trestleblade, is due in any minute for duty so he'll come along too."
He looked Gibs straight in the eye, "We won't be long, so we'll feed you and keep you for the rest of the day until we get some answers. Unfortunately I saw you last night and I don't know what it was but I can't say I trust that you won't hurt yourself or someone else. There's no debate on this. You're staying put." Gibs stared back at him, clenched his jaw, and then a defeated look of resignation set over his face. "Fine. But when you don't find nothin', because you won't, I want you to throw these in jail for assault!" He glared out of his cell at each one of you, lingering lastly on Alyssa. "I don't know what y'all are trying to pull, but cutting yourself is a damned stupid way to make a man look guilty. I look forward to seeing you on the inside of these cells."
Just then the deputy arrived, looking around the room confused at the amount of activity happening. Sheriff Benjan quickly explained what was going on to him and sent him to fetch breakfast for Gibs. Once all that was taken care of you all set out.
You arrive at Gibs shack of a home and the Sheriff moves his hat back, scratching his head. "Well, I don't know exactly what it is you're looking for, but lets get to it."
I search, for blood, shineys, loose floor boards, hidden caches, etc. . "Hey Tev, Radim, and Alyssa don't you have detect magic, why don't you paruse for magical auras first." Baris smiles, gives each party member a hug and then does a cartwheel before beginning his cursory search.
If he does not find anything he will take his time, taking a 20, so a 29 on search, taking 5 minutes on each 5 foot square.
Alyssa had a very hard time holding onto her temper when Gibs spoke those words to her, clenching her fists so hard that the knuckles popped. She'd held her breath to keep a very low growl from escaping and although her burnished gold eyes bore into the old man on the other side of the bars, she neither did nor said anything to incite him further. That's not to say that the voices weren't adding their touch to the situation, cooking up images of both a graphic and horrible nature of what she should do to him, adding gasoline to the fire of her hatred.
And then with an icy shrug she put those thoughts out. She instead reminded herself of the fear she had felt for herself and her friends at that hands of this possessed monster, and how hard they had worked to ensure he still breathed today. Let him rant and rave and be ungrateful; it would change nothing.
When they arrived at Gibs' shack Alyssa cautiously moved forward, trying to detect any magic in the tiny space or perceive anything that looked familiar to the other artifacts of the Whispering Way that they had found thus far.
The night was getting worse and worse.
The mystery of the statue seemed to have been somewhat solved (for now), but... The others had certainly done a poor job handling it. Keeping rhe puppet locked in the jail was only a temporary measure, if that. Any magical power strong enough to possess Gibbs would just as easily possess any of the othe villagers, leaving their effort for naught. He did not speak up on the matter, however. He doubted anyone would listen if he did.
The trip to the jail and now the house went as could be expected. Barging in at the middle of the night? Let there be no eldritch abomonations about. The spawn of The Blind Idiot God wass one of the last things Radim ever wanted to encounter again, but... At the rate this night was going...
He hung back from the others as they gathered at Gibbs' home, now clad in a set of ill-fitting armor and clutching a battered old hammer in a white-knuckled grip. With the urging to prepare for a fight, the little man had somehow managed to salvage up at least some form of protection. He waited for the others to act, though now Janasen was fixed with the same suspicious glare normally reserved for the elf and the tiefling both.
Alyssa begins taking slow and steady steps in various directions around the room to try and further detect the aura she is sensing, hoping to learn more of it by physical proximity.
"I do not wish to alarm any of you, but whoever or whatever was controlling Gibs last night still has presence within this room..." she said, her voice low and calm. "Be on your guard, and prepared to subdue even your allies should it take hold. It is very strong." she cast a glance to Tev, silently voicing that he should have his color spray spell ready. She held her coil of rope ready in her hand should it become needed.
In Baris's normal high pitch voice,"Hey guys around the back of the shack I found a pile of firewood that has been 'disturbed', underneath of which is a small hole with blood spatter on the inside. There is nothing in the hole currently. Could it have possibly been the waterskin? Radim what do you know of holes?"
"H-Holes?" Radim furrowed his brow at the... unusual question. "Holes are dug? Things hide in them too... sometimes?"
Janasen walks around idly looking for anything amiss "An old wizard from my village once told me that life is much more interesting when seeing what usually can't be seen."
Like Alyssa, Tev focused his powers of detecting magic and tried to discern as much as he could about the aura. The single thing he was most interested in was discerning whether any item in the house could be the source of the enchantment or perhaps even a magical amplifier of some sorts.
He also picked up on Jansen's comment. "Isn't that the truth," he chimed in agreement.
To Baris's question about the water skin, "Sounds like that's where he probably stashed the water skin when he wasn't using it."
"Yeah that's what I was thinking, just filling you in on what I found, nothing else seems to be amiss." Baris says visibly more somber than before, possibly since no one embraced Baris back.
Tev - you can't seem to find a spell that is causing this enchantment, it's more of an entity if anything.
As far as the shack is concerned there is no sign of breaking and entering and is in fact unlocked, no other person found inside it and the only disturbance to be found is the pile of firewood that Baris found with the hole and blood spatter.
Sheriff Benjan leans down next to Baris to examine the hole. "Well, this seems pretty cut and dry. I'm fairly inclined to believe your side of the story." He stands up, scratches his stubble. "I'm still planning on heading over to the statue to take a look for myself. I'd like for you all to come with me, I could use some of your more unique... expertise to help maybe figure out what he was doing down there."
Even though you've basically been exonerated from any wrong doing you feel as if Sheriff Benjans requests is not so much a request...