The party ties up the bandits, then Garnult lets off a couple of channels. The archer wakes, the victim of Tolbert's spell gradually comes to his senses, the dwarf remains unconscious but seems stable, the man who surrendered is uninjured, and the half-elf seems to be dead from blood loss.
Tolbert also wakes up, but remains badly wounded, with something like three arrows sticking out of his body in various places.
Damn Beetle, you're so persistent it takes an army to keep you down. Garnult says, genuinely impressed with the wizard. Garnult walks over to take a look at the dwarf, his gear if it has any dwarven marks, He is very interested in this dwarf.
The bandits carry no magical gear, and only common-quality weapons and armor. The dwarf also carries a spell component pouch.
Warren paces back and forth and then says to the prisoners gruffly Talk to the nice lady there so I don't have to come take my frustrations out on you as he motions to Cassidy.
Warren then walks the cavern and docks checking carefully for anything interesting or other ways out. Any pigeon feathers about?
The cavern is large, with most of the space unfilled. A river runs through it near the back wall, flowing roughly southwest-to-northeast, with the roof of the cave coming all the way down to water level. There are two crude wharfs, one of which moors a small rowboat. Lying on the wharf next to the rowboat is a large piece of oiled canvas, badly torn and attached to some broken pieces of curved wood. You also notice that the inside of the boat is wet with standing water in the bottom.
A group of barrels and crates lines the walls, and among them sits an empty birdcage. A handful of stools and chairs sit here and there.
Additionally, the dead half-elf's hair is damp.
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Turning to the bound prisoners Cassidy says, "It would be the best for your own welfare to give us answers to our questions. We are in a position to turn you over to the City's Guards, but we can put in a good word with the captian if you are cooperative. Who are you working for, and what were you doing before attacking us?"
One of the humans responds, "Well, guess the jig's up anyway, no sense being stubborn with Tulg on his ass."
He nods in the direction of the unconscious dwarf. "Tulg there's the boss. Rest of us were mostly just waitin' around while he was talkin' to the blue-skinned guy that jumped in the river. Boss said he was important, that if things went well with him we'd go from small-time crooks to big-time racketeers. Don't really understand all that myself."
"Did you guys by chance acquire the meteorite that hit the city yesterday? When know a couple of cloaked figures were seen leaving the impact sight with the rock."
The captives shift uncomfortably, then one looks over at the dwarf as though to be certain he's unconscious.
"Well," he says, "Couple of us grabbed it, 'cause Boss Tulg's always talkin' 'bout how some rocks is worth lots of money, 'specially space rocks. Said they're ore for adamantine, which we hear is pretty spendy. So we brought that back here, expectin' a big payoff. 'Cept Boss Tulg said it wasn't adamantine ore, and he started to yell at us for pickin' up a worthless rock, until cast a spell on it. Then he got all flustered and excited, like we'd found somethin' really great. Didn't really understand what he was talkin' about, but he said it could be our big break. He told us to send it down the river, along with a letter he wrote, and said we could really make it big. Not sure what he meant, but then today that blue-skinned guy showed up, and— well, I guess you were here for the rest of things..."
Boss Tulg, what is his Clan name? Where is he from? Garnult asks
Standing near the wharfs and boat Warren calls out. Tolbert! Come here please.
"I'd be happy to, if someone could kindly shovel my intestines back into my torso!"
"Thank you for the information. You have been most helpful, and I will let Captian know you have been cooperative and not the ring leader of this snafu. Do you know where down the river the rock was sent to or to whom it was sent to? Do you know the identity of the blue guy?"
Responding to both Garnult and Cassidy, one of the humans says "Boss Tulg never gave us much in the way of personal details or anythin' like that. Played things pretty close to the vest; there was somebody important that the rock we sent down the river was goin' to, somethin' 'bout us hittin' the big time, and I'm pretty sure that blue-skinned guy was connected to all that, but Boss never did give us details; mostly just told us to keep quiet while he did all the talkin'."
Tolbert hobbles over to where Warren stands, muttering about lawsuits. "What do you want?"
Warren speaks in a low voice to Tolbert, Something strange is going on here. They said they sent the note downriver, but the river comes up to the cave, so there's no way to take a boat downriver. Could have put it in a bottle but that's chancy. Then the boat here has water in it. The half elf that tried to skewer you has wet hair. Something's off here. Could you detect for magic and do you have any ideas, before we go asking this lot?
No magical auras in the boat/wharf area.
"I don't sense anything. Your guess is as good as mine."
Warren waves Cassidy over. Something is strange. There is no way to take a boat out of here, yet there are docks and the dead half elf has wet hair. Can you ask these guys how they sent the message and how they use the river as their boat has water in it and why the half elf is wet?
Cassidy walks back over to the dudes. "So you sent the rock down river, and we see that there is a boat in this cavern, but there is no way to get the boat out of here,seeing that the cavern touches the waters surface. How did you send the rock and message down river? And, how do you use the river? The boat has water in it and the elf's hair is wet?"
"Oh, that," one of the prisoners says, chuckling a bit. "We put the rock in a barrel along with the letter, oiled it up good so it wouldn't leak, then floated it on down. Bumped the ceiling a couple times probably, but it was a sturdy barrel. As for the boat," he says, pausing with a brief snicker, "The blue guy and the half-elf used that to come back up the river. I guess they didn't wanna come through town, so they built themselves some kinda covered-wagon-style thing over their boat, tryin' to dip under the water or somethin'. Didn't work too well; broke just short of gettin' into the cave and they both ended up in the drink. Blue guy's real good at swimmin' apparently, so he pulled the boat and the torn-up canvas up to the wharf we made while the half-elf floundered his way out of the water like a half-drowned cat!"
Most of the prisoners start laughing at the recollection.
"Oh, he was in a foul mood, lemme tell ya! All red-faced and swearin'. Dunno if they were gonna try to go back in barrels, or walk like normal people. But I guess now it don't matter, since the guy's dead and the blue fella took off through the river."
Accepting their story. Warren heads over to the barrels and crates to see what's in them.
Several barrels are empty, and seem to be in various stages of waterproofing. Another contains quite a bit of oil. Additionally, there's a wheelbarrow next to a pile of cinder blocks.
Among the crates are various supplies and foodstuffs, as well as quite a bit of (presumably stolen) cash, some of it still inside various wallets and coinpurses. It would take a while to count it all up, but the fruits of their petty thievery probably totals somewhere in the neighborhood of two grand.
Looking at her comrades, Cassidy asks, "Well, are we done here? Should we report back?"
The only question I have is what are the cinder blocks and wheelbarrow for? After we get that answer we can take these stolen good and them back with us.
Hearing Warren's question, one of the prisoners pipes up:
"Oh, those are to block up the other end of the tunnel. We ran into a cave, but it turned out to be the nest of a huge, nasty spider. Lost two men. We don't think the opening's big enough for him to get out here into our tunnel, but we don't wanna chance it, so we were startin' to block it up. Didn't get finished, though."
You all recall seeing some cinderblocks at the entrance to the spider's cave.
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"Construction projects-never finished when you need them to be."
That's what I figured. Let's get these stolen goods out of here and head back to the Captain.
"Sounds good."
I'm with ya
You report back to Captain Arriaga and relate your story and hand over the bandits and loot. She surmises from your descriptions of events that Woodhaven's small and newly-formed thieves' guild may have seen the magical meteorite as a ticket to becoming a sort of chapter-house for a larger criminal organization.
She hopes you will all be willing to go after the missing meteorite, but points out that her own jurisdiction is only in Woodhaven and so she can neither enlist nor compensate you for such a task. However, she gives you each another 1,000gp for your recent services and says that should you choose to venture out on your own to get the object back from whatever organization it was sent to, Woodhaven's libraries/experts/etc would be at your disposal for any research or planning or whatnot.
Also, you all level up to 3rd after tonight's rest. :)
Warren looks solemnly at Captain Arriaga and says "I understand you can't hire us to follow up on this. I for one will certainly do what I can to recover the item. Our first order of business to to find out where that river goes. Does anyone in town know?"
The dwarven woman shrugs. "Not being familiar with it myself, I don't know who else might be. You could always ask around, or check the library for maps or old city planning records or something."
"Also, is there anyone who can tells us about the region beyond Woodhaven?"
Garnult nods in gruff Dwarven agreement with Warren. Something needs to be done.
Turning to Cassidy, the captain answers, "The city library should have an assortment of maps and references for the area. Also, we get a lot of travelers through Woodhaven—not unlike yourselves, really—so you may well be able to find someone with useful first-hand knowledge of nearby geography."
She then smiles at the group as a whole. "I'm pleased to see that you're all the sort to engage a situation like this. There's no telling what could happen with a criminal organization holding a powerful necromantic object."
"So I get to help raid these criminals' operation, take their stuff, then charge them for legal services afterward? I get them coming and going!"
Garnult snorts at the greedy Wizard. As opposed to....?
Warren stands and hold's out his hand to the Captain. "Thank you for your support. We'll spend the next couple days finding out what we can and then go after them. I hope we find something as I don't relish climbing in a barrel and see where I come out."
Warren is going to find someone to enchant half of his weapon and then try the library for any information about the underground river.
So in two days time, we'll meet up and set out to track down the artifact and the criminal organization that has their hands on it? Sounds good.
In the mean time, Cassidy will also go to the library to research and will look for people in town to talk to as well.
She's hoping to learn about the surrounding areas of Woodhaven (geography, dangers, it's peoples, etc.) She will also try and learn about any known organizations are in area and about any undine cultures nearby.
For two days Garnult finds his new armor and has it sized for himself...
After concluding your meeting with Guard Captain Arriaga, you disperse across town to spend your rewards. Garnult returns to the well-groomed dwarven smith from whom he bought the breastplate and purchases a suit of full plate, leaving it overnight for minor size adjustments. Warren finds an armory able to enchant his sword, and commissions a two-day job. Cassidy purchases a magical cloak, and Tolbert shops for various spellcasting aids.
The next morning, Garnult picks up his shiny new armor, and the lot of you begin your research and investigations.
Day 1:
Starting at the library in the morning:
, taking hours...
Unfortunately, you seem to have some trouble locating and navigating the geographical field manuals in the library, and you're unable to acquire any meaningful information relating to geography.
, taking hours...
You spend the next three hours over census data and public records and even travelers' journals. You end up pretty confident of a couple of things:
One, that there are no major undine settlements nearby, but that undines fit fairly easily into human settlements; they're rare creatures, but could easily be found in any sufficiently large population center.
Two, that of all the roads leading to and from Woodhaven, the large road due north that connects Woodhaven and the larger metropolitan city of Zunberg has the highest reported frequency of bandit activity; in fact, when the mayor wished to build his rural estate outside Woodhaven's walls several years ago, Captain Arriaga had to persuade him to shift the location further east out of concerns for his safety.
Garnult can assist Cassidy, untrained aid another....
At the library, morning of Day 1:
, taking hours...
You spend a sizeable chunk of the morning looking for any information you can find on local rivers. Although you discover that a few rivers in this general region are sourced in some low mountains to the south and flow roughly northward (some more directly than others), you fail to find anything about any of them running underground.
You've still got the late morning and the rest of the day. Would you like to research other topics, or try other activities?
The Knowledge check you rolled: You'd guess that anyone with an interest in undeath would be interested in the meteorite, but you're not sure who that would be.
Your canvassing of the locals takes hours. In that time, you don't encounter anyone who knows of a particular group that would be interested in a mysterious rock with powerful necromantic properties; however, there seems to be a general consensus that a seller could unload anything given a big enough market (if selling in public) or enough connections/networks (if selling on the black market). You get the impression that most folks aren't including Woodhaven in either category, but might include Zunberg to the north, Morganheim to the west, or really any organization with access to powerful long-distance communication/travel magic.
What would you like to do after lunch? You could ask the locals about other topics, do some research at the library, something else...?
Following directions from Cassidy, Garnult does some research on the region's geography:
, taking hours...
Long after Cassidy has given up, you discover that several of the region's rivers are sourced in the low mountains south of here, and flow northward.
By that time, Cassidy's almost done with her other research (feel free to read her spoiler), and the two of you grab some lunch before heading out to canvas the town.
After a long series of "I dunno, but you might ask so-and-so" types of exchanges, the two of you end up meeting a traveling dwarven scholar. He says he noticed an opening in the rocky wall of one of the deeper parts of the Tollun river, north of Woodhaven. He explains that the same river drains out from a lake south of town, but according to some long-term math that he's very proud of, it drains less water (at least, visibly) than the lake's input would indicate. Thus, he's come to Woodhaven to investigate the possibility of an underground river. When you tell him where it is, he's so beside himself that he gives each of you a free signed copy of his latest book, Rocks and How Important They Are (written entirely in dwarven).
Okay, Cassidy and Garnult have pretty much wrapped up their day. Just need a few more hours from Tolbert and Warren.
After the library I'll try city hall and see what I can dig up in the records there about any sewer planning and relations to the river.
, taking hours...
Unfortunately, you can't seem to make heads or tails of the city planning records, especially once it starts getting past lunchtime.
After a late lunch, what would you like to do?