Niculaie slings his bow over his shoulder and hurries over to the injured people near the spider's corpse (including Vivian and Silas), pulling his healer's kit out of his handy haversack.
"I can try to help with anyone who has been poisoned by this creature's venom, if no one has appropriate spells prepared."
Your heroic efforts continue beyond the combat, and you are able to get everyone breathing and headed to recovery.
Meanwhile, Silas tracks the blood trail back to D8, which is the pens that the lodge keeps dangerous beasts for would-be hunters that have the funds necessary. Inside, he also finds the remains of a number of dead, bloodless rats.
Niculaie looks for Duristan, Belik, or the Lodge Warden, and asks whichever one he sees first, "It appears that this creature may have escaped from your own pens. How is that possible?"
Silas wastes not time finding the others and bringing them up to date on what he's discovered.
Niculaie looks for Duristan, Belik, or the Lodge Warden, and asks whichever one he sees first, "It appears that this creature may have escaped from your own pens. How is that possible?"
"I don't think 'escape' is the proper term. 'Released' seems to fit better." He points out the drained rats. "Blood from those was smeared as a trail to lead the creature inside. Someone planned this."
Tara furrows her brow, thinking a moment before speaking. "But why? What would someone have to gain from a giant creature attacking the lodge?" tracing the groove on her holy symbol Tara tries to come up with reasons.
Pontia frowns, thinking. "The guests here include nobles and other important people, any one of whom may have enemies willing to be indiscriminate. Unless this was a distraction?"
As you pontificate the situation, Estovion comes in. "What has happened here?!? Thank you for saving everyone! Who is responsible for this?"
Delgros looks up from the ground where he was still laid out. "The giant spider was from the pens. Pauncy must have let it free."
You all turn to regard the dim-witted groundskeeper who simply looks down at the ground and mutters "Sorry."
Estovion very loudly starts to chastise the fool. "How can you be so stupid! Willful disregard for these people's safety! Guards, place him under house arrest! Delgros - you are lucky you are not under arrest as well!"
"Please, my guests, accept my deepest apologies for this misunderstanding. I beg you to forgive poor Paucy. He really knows not what he does. I promise you all I will personally work with the groundskeeper daily to rehabilitate him."
Sophie, stabilize those who are just unconcious, I'll heal those whose life is endangered, while Tara starts to help those poisoned. Then we'll all three treat the poison..including myself, I guess
Sophie nearly reprimands this "girl" for telling her elders what to do, but then decides she speaks sense and does as she's told.
--
"You mean to tell me that a simpleton freed a monster and lured it out into the open for no reason at all?" Sophie asks loudly. "That is both too easy and also paper-thin. There should be more investigation about what really happened here."
Pontia nods in agreement. "Silas and Sophie are right. The spider wasn't just released, it was led to the open door of the lodge. Who did that? Is that door usually left open?"
Maybe I'll find some tracks.. Big spider's tracks won't be that hard to find!
Vivian is still a little bit nauseous from the spider bite, and searches her backpack for something, finally finding it.
The mysteries of how many different things a woman's bag (and how she manages to eventually_find what she seeks again) can contain is one of the constant in the multiverse
Aha! I knew I still had some antitoxin!
"As I said, I will take care of punishing and reforming the guilty party. Please now, go about your business. Have a few drinks on the house, to help ease those tensions."
Estovian seems to consider the matter closed. Moments later, Belik comes in, winded, and shakes his head ever so slightly so that Estovian can see it.
"Try to get some rest, my friends. Tomorrow will be a new day."
Not always the sharpest at picking up subtlety, even Silas notices the exchange between the halfling and their host. He narrows his eyes before turning to the others.
"Yes, we should rest and have some drinks. I'm sure our host has everything well in hand," he says.
~~~
Once they've taken leave of Estovian and have settled in the corner of the common room, Silas leans in to speak quietly. "Perhaps that was just a distraction," he says to the others. "Did anyone else notice Belik? I think he was supposed to do something while the spider kept everyone busy. But what, is the question."
Or he might be a scapegoat. I honestly don't know. I can't understand while they kept a giant sized spider so close to the place. An accident was bound to happen, it was only a question of time. And you can make sure an accident will happen. That's what we call a trap. But a few drinks will be welcome, that antitoxin was nearly past its date and I'm sure it didn't even taste that good to begin with.
Pontia smiles. "Many alchemists believe that pleasant taste must vary inversely with elixir efficacy. I know a great deal about the field, though, and have not found a good reason for this. Certainly when I prepare remedies they don't taste like the leachings from an ash pit."
"I have not noticed any such correlation with my own small formulary of elixirs, Pontia," Niculaie says. "I find that each has its own pleasant flavor. On reflection, though, it may be that none of you would enjoy the tastes."
"I agree, Silas, Belik looked for all the world like the Lodge Warden had sent him to find someone - or something - and the halfling was unsuccessful. I do not trust the Estovian's assurances, and I think we should try to question Belik tonight. Or perhaps we would have more success with Pauncy, the scapegoat for this debacle?"
"Silas, do you think you could follow Belik's backtrail? We shouldn't walk out that way just now, of course, but I should like to know where he was coming from."
"I don't consider myself a tracker, but I'll do my best," he says in reply to Pontia's request.
Tracking in an inn is not likely to yield much, but Silas' best guess is that he came from upstairs.
Wringing her hands, Tara glances around at the group. "What should I do? I'm not great at much outside the healing arts, but I'm willing to lend aid where I can."
"Let's go see where he came from! " Sophie pronounces decisively
Upstairs consists mostly of rooms, both guest rooms and your host's quarters.
"Everyone, check your belongings. I don't think any of us were the targets, though." She smiles a little. "We're social nonentities, after all." I hope. "Competent enough, though."
Suiting action to words, the wizard returns to the room she shares and looks for signs of disturbance.
"We may be social nonentities, but we're also the wildcard," Silas says. "We show up out of nowhere and no one knows who we are. If someone has plans in the works, they might want to know if we're going to be a disruption." He shrugs and then goes to check his own belongings.
Looking around your belongings, nothing is missing... but it does appear that someone may have been looking through them, hurriedly. The flour, however, was undisturbed.
Niculaie follows along when Silas returns to their shared room and examines his own belongings.
"Perhaps Belik was sent not to take anything, but to see whether we had taken something that the Warden is missing? Could the spider have been released solely to distract us?" He shakes his head in frustration. "Too many questions. We need to find Belik and get some answers."
"Whoever was responsible didn't seem to have a care that many of the guests could have been killed in their simple distraction. This person is either a complete idiot, wholely without morals, or frantically desperate," Silas says in frustration as he returns his belongings to their original locations. "Any of those factors will make this person very dangerous."
Pontia rejoins the gents after putting her belongings back in order. "You're right, Silas. We were lucky no one died. Of your three choices, I am inclined toward the last, although it's also possible that the Warden had something in reserve to deal with the spider if we could not. Before we speak with Belik, it might be good to see if any of the other guests had their rooms searched."
Tara furrows her brow and nods along, "I would bank on paranoid. Why else would they touch our eff-" cutting off Tara's eyes go wide as she visibly pales and returns to her items, digging through to check to ensure all of her items are accounted for. Pulling out her prayer book, she flips through it, relaxing visibly as her keepsakes are found safe.
"I am starting to dislike our stay here. Don't they know an old woman's things are private! "
Someone was searching for something about us, but nothing was steal, and it doesn't seem the thief was gone in a hurry because he was interrupted. He knew that he had very few minutes to act. So my guess is that he or she was looking for information, to know who we are, and why we are here. He didn't care to leave a mess, so we could notice its misdemeanor and maybe get afraid for our security, maybe run away. I got the feeling its someone of the staff, but I might be wrong. Do anyone of you know about spells that could guard us, or should we start to leave a guard here?
"I can cast the alarm spell on our rooms. I caution that we don't know whether we were the only targets; Belik may have searched everyone."
Pontia rejoins the gents after putting her belongings back in order. "You're right, Silas. We were lucky no one died. Of your three choices, I am inclined toward the last, although it's also possible that the Warden had something in reserve to deal with the spider if we could not. Before we speak with Belik, it might be good to see if any of the other guests had their rooms searched."
"That's a good idea, but I don't think we would get very far just knocking on the doors of other guests at random." Niculaie pulls out his journal and begins paging through it. "Who among the guests have we actually met so far? Let's see, we met Duristan Silvio Ariesir, the would-be werewolf hunter, at check-in. We had breakfast this morning with Cilas Grayson, the Margrave of Sturnidae, of course. Then Sophie and I had just completed our visit with Madame Ivanja, the fortune teller, when the spider attacked." He also tells the group about the warning from the Varisian Harrow reader.
"So who should we start with? Is there anyone I've forgotten? I suggest Ariesir, as he seems to be the least likely to be a party to any conspiracy himself."
Pontia nods. "That's who I was thinking of. Do you want to talk to him?"
Pontia nods. "That's who I was thinking of. Do you want to talk to him?"
Niculaie nods. "I can do that. As harmless as I believe him to be, however, I do not think any of us should go off alone from now on. Perhaps two of us should talk to Ariesir, two should track down the Margrave, and the remaining pair talk with Madame Ivanja?"
Tara nods along with Niculaie's words, worrying her hands. "Um, I can go with someone to talk with the Madame? I'm not great with speaking though, so I don't know how much help I can be." she mutters, the memory of her stuttering failure at Saban's defense still haunting her. "But I can also ask Pharasma for some guidance, if anyone has questions for her?"
Pontia smiles at the other woman. "I have a better idea, I think. It might seem suspicious if two of us were to approach Ariesir for no apparent reason...but he was in the thick of the fight against the spider, and it would be natural for our healers to look in on him in case he was injured. You and Sophie can go to speak with him, while Vivian and I have a chat with Madame Ivanja. Silas, you and Niculae find the Margrave--you've already spoken with him, and you can start by talking about the fight. How does that sound to everyone?"
it is easy enough for each pair to find their person of interest. All are willing to speak with you.
I'm in, Pontia. Do you have already some questions in mind?
Sophie approves of the plan
"I agree."
"I think we should ask for a standard reading to start with, and then move on to whether she's familiar with the book we're looking for. We should ask her if her belongings were disturbed, too."
Picking at her robes, Tara offers an grimace to Sophie, "Should we get this over with?" Approaching the thrill-seeker, Tara weakly holds up her pack.
"Mister Ariesir, I-we," gesturing to Sophie, Tara tries to continue, "were just doing our rounds on those who fought the vermin in the lodge. Is now a good time?
"Sure, of course. What is your question?"
Niculaie - hopefully joined by Silas - approaches the Margrave's door and knocks.
"Good day to you, sir. We apologize for the intrusion, but perhaps you heard the commotion from the common room, less than an hour ago? It seems one of the creatures from the menagerie the Lodge maintains for hunters - an enormous arachnid - escaped and made its way into the Lodge itself, causing a number of injuries and some property damage before my friend here and the rest of our party were able to dispatch the beast."
Niculaie pauses to assess the Margreve's reaction before continuing. "When we returned to our rooms, it appeared that someone had gone through our belongings. Perhaps they were looking for something, but as far as we could tell, nothing was missing. Before we raise a fuss with the Warden, we are hoping to learn whether we were the only targets, or if perhaps the intruder cast a wider net."
Pontia knocks at the Madame's door. "Good day to you, ma'am. Vivian and I have come seeking the wisdom of the Harrow." One corner of her mouth twitches as she suppresses a smile. "I'm sorry. That sounded far less pretentious in my head."
I hope not to sound too bold, but why do you suppress your smile? Your smile is cute! We fight for our lives, or the lives of others, we face horrors unheard of, we are wounded, burned and worse, and we can't offer ourselves a smile once in a while? Haven't we suffered enough? Aren't we worth a smile, a laugh, friendship or love? Smile every time you can, Pontia, cause life will give you enough sorrows. You've earned your smiles.
Vivian gives Pontia a big, warm smile, with a hug too, hoping to see her smile back
"Welcome, welcome. You and your friends handle yourselves quite well. Come in, have some tea while we speak. Of course, I can do reading for you."
She shuffles up a few cards, and turns one up for each of you. Both are of the stars suit, representing Wisdom.
"You both must face a powerful force yet unseen that is manipulating the current situation, both in the Shudderwood and beyond. This force is steadily growing in both power and malevolence, and has the potential to threaten Ustalav and the indeed the whole world."
Looking to Pontia, she says "Beware the vilkacis - I see it comes for you!"
Then looking at Vivian's card, she says, "I see you at the the top of
a tower, standing almost one hundred and fifty feet above the forest floor on a wide, circular platform. An arrangement of large menhirs and megaliths encircles the perimeter of the open-air observatory. Here you face two enemies, but one you can possibly turn to your side if you can convince them of the other's betrayal."
She goes quiet, and then sips her tea. "I can see no more, today, but perhaps you would like to sit and discuss other things?"
==================================================================
"Come in, gentlemen. Rooms searched, you say? I have noticed nothing of my own disturbed, so it sounds like you may have raised someone's interest or even ire. I have not heard of such an intrusion before, either. Who do you think could be behind it?"