Daseem shrugged at Scrabbler's question, why the heck would anyone want to do that?! But then he looked thoughtful for a moment and replied softly, "We put our noses where they're n-n-not welcome."
Wincing Daseem looked at his wounds, they where still oozing blood.
He whispered, "Gorum!" once more and pressed his hand over the largest of the wounds. With a blue flash the wound vanished.
Noting Scrabbler's wounds, he passed him what appeared to be a healing potion they'd found on the body.
Daseem felt a little shaken, yet oddly calm as he suggested, "We'd better f-find the others."
"Yes captain, I'm afraid it was a kill or be killed situation and, well, as you can see, me and Bupkis are still here." Edgar says sheepishly, talking fastly as his adrenaline rushed from the fight,"Bupkis is right, we should regroup and figure out whats going on." he says as he rushes to keep up with the goblin.
"Bupkis rushes ahead when friends in danger!", the goblin replies to Edgar, looking back. "Hurry!"
Without questioning at all, Scrabbler downed the potion.
"Not smart asassinses," Scrabbler said. "Should have been more sneaky, brought bigger stabbers. Maybe bear traps. Oh! Stealed your big sword away first..."
Scrabbler wandered out of the barn, running a stream of consciousness brainstorm session about how he would have done things much better if he had been trying to kill Daseem in his sleep.
Kurst moves up to the door of Daseem's house and knocks.
Menrozzar sighs as Bupkis and Edgar rush ahead. If there are more assassins, I hope they don't get themselves killed.
He approaches the door of Tessa and her mother's house with the Patrol Leader, waiting for an answer.
There wasn't an immediate reply to the knock at the door. When the knock turned to pounding there was an explosive series of expletives from within, "Daseem is that you? Why the #&$* did you wake me up? I'll have your #$%*@ guts for garters!" A few minutes later a looking disheveled Tessa with bloodshot eyes and smelling of hard liquor barges the door open. She notes Kurst and looks surprised, "Eh?! What do you want?" From somewhere inside the cottage Aunt Crumkin's voice calls out, "What's going on Tessa?" Tessa folded her arms and stared at Kurst, "Well? What do you want?"
Bupkis heads to the barn, only to encounter Scrabbler on his way out, saying something about how better to kill Dassem. It takes him a moment to figure out that Daseem is OK, and that Scrabbler hasn't gone crazy and attacked the human. "Assassins here too?", he asks.
That one fell victim to something else. Kurst thinks, but he keeps a straight face. "Where is Daseem?" he asks, putting some weight into his voice, to get a simple answer to a simple question.
She glares at him for a moment before snapping, "In trouble is he? Well well, the useless fool is in the dog house -I mean the barn round back." Without waiting for a reply she swivels on her heel and renters the cottage slamming the door behind her.
"With that dragon in the house I'd sleep in the barn too." Kurst states before turning to walk around the house.
Once there he joins the conversation of Scrabbler and Bupkis throwing in an inquiry about Daseem.
Daseem looked at Scrabbler for a long moment, 'Bear trap?! What the...' He glanced at his sword which he'd been cleaning with a rag before nodding. The little one was right, 'Frankly by all rights I should have died just now.' Smiling weakly he stammers, "I-I owe you my life. Got to s-s-sleep some time."
Looking at the mess he sighed, Tessa was going to kill him. Before he could dwell on this any more, the other goblin turned up.
"Assassins here too?", he asks.
Daseem nodded and pointed at the corpses, "N-nearly got me. Wait they went for y-you too? This is bad."
Bupkis looks at the bodies and replies, "Yes: assassins Ramblehouse; Longhouse too! Edgar, Menrozzar and Ivan OK."
Scabbler gave Bupkis an enthusiastic hug, leaving a smear of blood on the other goblin. "We ok! Glad you ok too."
As the others walked up, Scrabbler waved happily.
”Indeed. I’m glad you’re both okay, as well. Patrol Leader, in light of this attempted assasination on us tonight, I am prepared to say that your brother’s death was murder, plain and simple. Daktani, the cutpurse, was using the Plague House for something, and he grabbed the boy Othdan, tied him up and hid him in a furnace room when Othdan went there to try and go in. I don’t know to what extent he’s involved, or what the plan is, but I think it would behoove us to be on alerts we should also figure out where these assigns came from - I don’t recognize them.”
"If they're not here for personal revenge, then I'd say Freedom Town. Probably mercenaries." Kurst speculates.
"This is indeed grave news. Someone is hiding something, and so far they do a good job at that. You have to keep investigating that. Something is afoot and we can't allow to be cought off guard again."
"It's up to you, but I suggest, you sleep at the Longhouse for the time being."
Daseem saw the wisdom in Kurst's words, "Longhouse? Y-yes t'would be safer." he nodded. Suppressing a yawn Daseem thought, 'Sleep would be good. No doubt in the morning no doubt there'll be much work to do.'
"Bupkis still tired. We sleep more now Longhouse?", the little goblin asks. "Someone keeps watch, yes?" He's afraid of more assassins.
"A watch is already set up and I'll have them lock the doors too." Kurst answers.
He leads the way and all are placed in the same room for the night. The windows are too small to enter through them anyway, but Kurst orders the janitor to ask Sara about bars in the morning.
Nothing else comes up that would interrupt the sleep of the group, but the nightmares caused by the events.
Edgar is happy to sleep with the security of the longhouse and will sleep a several more hours so he is fresh in the morning. his morning routine is varied as he is used to travel. the only constant is his summoning of Edwin.
Menrozzar sleeps an hour later than he normally would, the night's activities having made him more tired than usual. Once he awakens, he dons his armor and joins the rest of the militia for breakfast, followed by an hour of weapons training. After that, he will meet up with the rest of the crew to discuss the various items they found in the Plague House.
Bupkis gladly accepts the offer to sleep in the Longhouse. When he wakes up in the morning, he finds that he is unusually hungry. He heads towards the mess hall to see if he can get a free meal.
He piles his plate high with eggs and sausages, drawing surprised comments about the amount of food, and skepticism about his ability to eat that much. He proves his doubters wrong by polishing off the entire plate, and going back for seconds.
After he finishes his ample breakfast, Bupkis turns his attention to the other thing near and dear to the hearts of goblins: shiny things! He joins the other party members to look at the collection of coins and other objects that they collected at the Plague House.
"We divide shinies now?", he asks eagerly.
When the Bupkis mentions dividing the spoils of their investigation, Edgar looks into his purse and sees less than a dozen gold coins when he says, rather sheepishly,"Thats not a bad idea... I wouldn't mind visiting that cleric, or maybe an alchemist to get a potion of healing if I can afford it..."
Daseem wasn't overly fussed about divvying up the 'shinnies', investigating what the heck was going on seemed rather more urgent. So he nodded at Edgar's words and suggested, "We s-should search for Daktani, ask about. S-somebody must have seen him." Besides this would give him a reason to put off the inevitable showdown with Tessa, he could legitimately claim he was helping out. What's that what she wanted? She'd been haranguing him for months to integrate more... No. He knew deep down this wouldn't cut ice.
whenever we are all together next:
"So, my sis works down at the counting house, we could deposit all the coinage and valuables we've found there and maybe open an account to start paying for me and whoever isn't an official guard to have some lodging?" he says hoping to not come off to forward we did work together so well after all,
"I mean..." he starts off before pausing for a moment and looking up at them,"I mean it's obvious that someone Murdered Rodrik right? And we seem to work well together and we might have uncovered something big, well big for Trunau...I guess what im trying to say is, Are we planning on seeing this investigation through? To the end?" he finishes confidently.
"Must find what happening; stop bad things!", Bupkis agrees.
He suggests, "Sell not shiny things, unless we use! Maybe buy some things like healing, in case orcs do very bad things." He is worried about what's been happening, and if something bad could happen to the town, and Alicia.
Menrozzar looks over the wide variety of items they had collected before singling out a couple of scrolls the steel scroll case and a foot-long wooden stick. "I believe these are magical, but Edgar wasn't able to figure out what they were. Agrit, at the House of Wonders, may be able to help with that. She may also be able to appraise the gems for us. As for the rest of it..."
Menrozzar looks everything over. "It doesn't look like any of this has been sized for a goblin, although perhaps the lockpicks will prove useful to one of you."
"Daseem, Ivan, do either of you want this chainmail or this falchion? Does anyone want any of these weapons or armor?"
Menrozzar begins dividing the coin into equal piles.
As Menrozzar is offering up the more mundane items, Edgar has a look at the magical items he could not identify again with a fresh set of eyes. "let me take one more look at the scrolls and this stick before we go paying someone for it,"
EDIT:
no laddie, blades ne'er felt right in me hands. An I've almost got me project finished. Just anotha couple days O work on me Pa's plate armor will be back in workin' order. So no need fer the armor. Ivan grumbles out. Slightly grumpy due to the lack of a proper sleep. Ivan also hands over the items he had taken from the chest.
The offer was well made but Daseem shook his head. He was already wearing chain and while the Falchion was no doubt a fine weapon, Gorum favored the greatsword.
"Once we're d-done we best head on out" noted Daseem, keen to find out what the heck was going on. Clearly there was a concerted plot against Trunau but exact shape and size of this was anything but clear.
Edgar looks over the fine chain shirt,"I Think ill take this, it seems comfortable enough." he says as he takes off his hide shirt and puts on the chain.
Menrozzar nods to Ivan and Daseem, and says, "Very well. I'll take the chainmail - it's more protective than my current armor. The falchion may also prove useful if I find myself unable to use my hammer to keep foes back."
Menrozzar removes his scale mail and dons the chainmail. It was heavier and more restrictive, but if something bad was coming for Trunau, the extra protection would be welcome.
"Now, let's go return this hopeknife to Brinya, then sell the rest and see if we can find the owners of some of this other stuff."
Scrabbler mostly just listened. He liked the idea of getting shinys but didn't really have a good understanding for how buying and selling worked or what things were really worth. He just stayed close and hoped his new friends would give him what he'd earned.
Bupkis spends a good deal of time looking at all of the shiny things. However, even shiny things can only hold a goblin's attention for so long. He get's up and says, "Yes, take Hopeknife Brinya! Then Agrit House of Wonders; ask about magic things."
With everything packed away again, the group leaves the Longhouse to pay Brinya a visit. A short time after knocking the half orc woman opens the door the grief written into her face.
Bupkis says, "Morning greetings, Brinya! We find Rodrik Hopeknife at Plague House."
He realizes that he doesn't know who is carrying the blade right now, and looks around. "Who has Hopeknife?"
Menrozzar pulls out the hopeknife and extends it to her. "I believe this is the hopeknife Rodrik lost at the Plague House. We found it last night, and we thought you might like it back."
"Thank you very much." Brinya replies as she accepts the knife. Then she breaks out in tears.
Bupkis bows his head, saying, "Rodrik good friend; Bupkis sad." Normally he would try to cheer Brinya up by hitting himself with a telekinetic projectile, but he doesn't feel like it now. Brinya's expression of grief gives him permission to experience his own feelings.
Daseem felt a wave of pity for poor Brinya, he wanted to comfort her but he found himself too choked up to speak. He wanted to tell her they were sorry for her loss, that they would do everything possible to find the killer and bring them to justice. How could he say that though? He could barely tell Tessa that she lived her let alone this. He had no words. This one though consumed him, going round and round again. So it was he didn't realize he'd muttered, "No words... No words..."
Menrozzar desperately looks at Edgar, hoping he'll say something comforting, before saying, "I'm sorry for your loss. I know this doesn't bring him back, but I hope that you are able to find some measure of solace in this."
"Yes, thank you." Brinya replies through tears and retreats into the house, closing the door.
Edgar had wanted to say something but the weight of the past few days began to get to heavy as she started to cry. She's right to cry, this is truly a hopeless situation. captain dead, a local cutpurse upgraded to a kidnapper, and assassins in Trunua... an image of the assassin's face, shredded by the eagles claws and beak, transfixes itself in his mind and he is unable to compose himself until he hears the door close and looks up.
"Well... At least we did that," he says solemnly,"hopefully our other errands aren't so harrowing eh?"
What are we to do now then? I reckon we should sell off most of the stuff we found, no use luggin it aroun' if'n we ain't gonna use it. An' I need ta' work on me armor today as well. Ivan speaks, having remained silent during the ordeal. He knew how hard losing close ones could be, and she seemed to at least have it together save the mourning.
Bupkis stands for a moment, lost in thought, before looking up. "Yes, sell stuff; ask Agrit about magic things."
Agrit is found in the House of Wonders like most of the time. The dwarven woman is busy packing a chest with potions and some scrolls. As the group enters, she stops to greet them. "Welcome. What brings you here in such numbers?"
Bupkis says "We find magic things at Plague House. You can tell what some do?"
After she replies he remembers something and tells her, "Oh, Daktani bad! Holds Othdan prisoner; we free."