As her sister slips away, Haelynn moves away to distract the halfling. "Walthus, you appear to be injured," she says, pointing at his leg, "may I offer you blessings of the goddess to ease you pain?"
Walthus seems somewhat bewildered at Grendel's joke about the maid, and just stares at him for a moment without answering. When Grendel invokes Sheriff Hemlock's name and asks for help regarding the Licktoads, Walthus says, "Goblins. Yes. Um, they live in the middle of the swamp. That way," he points vaguely towards a wall (to the south). "I don't have any contact with them - I stay out of their way, they stay out of my way."
By this stage, Walthus has led Grendel (and anyone else who is following) through doorway to another room, a combination cooking area and dining room. A halfling sized wooden table with a single (halfling sized) chair occupies the centre of the room. A high bench (with a footstool below it) runs along one wall, and there is a simple wood burning stove with a small stack of firewood beside it in one corner. This room appears somewhat neater than the last room. Another doorway appears to lead to a pantry or larder.
While Walthus leads the way into the dining area, Yumiko hangs back, looking critically at the broken chair, then turning to sneak off up the stairs.
Sneaking up the stairs, Yumiko finds herself at one end of a dimly lit, narrow corridor with three wooden doors off it.
While Walthus leads the way into the dining area, Yumiko hangs back, looking critically at the broken chair, then turning to sneak off up the stairs.
** spoiler omitted **
Use as many of these as you need...
"You appear to be limping Walthus," Haelynn points out, again, "would you like me to tend to your leg?"
The first time Haelynn asked her question, Walthus appeared either not to hear her or ignore her, but the second time he looks away from Grendel and responds. “Snakebite,” he says. “Yes, it hurts. Who is your goddess? Would she help me?”
The second doorway leads to a bedroom containing a human-sized bed covered with a dusty sheet, and an apparently empty wardrobe with a broken door. The third door leads to another bedroom, this one cluttered with halfling sized furniture, clothing and bedding. There is a small bed, desk and chair, a crowded wardrobe and an open chest filled with shoes. The place is something of a mess.
There is little up here to indicate that Walthus might be in league with goblins or a secret demon-worshipper or anything.
Xargin steps forward slightly to stand beside Haelynn
"Walthus, is all well with you? If it is just the snakebite paining you, please, let our friend Haelynn assist you. If there is something further troubling you, then please, share your woes with us. Mayhaps we could be of assistance. We do not mean to pry, you just seem ill at ease, and we know it cannot be easy living out here on your own."
** spoiler omitted **
Next she will look at the wardrobe in the 'unoccupied' room. Is the door broken recently like the chair downstairs? Anything under the sheet?
If there is still time she will rifle a little bit more through the equipment room (looking for odd equipment or weird crafting marks - that kind of thing).
If this proves unfruitful, she will sneak back down the stairs to the others and pretend she was never gone.
Walthus turns to consider Xargin. "Well ... my snakes. There is a problem. Something's wrong with them I think ... they attacked me, something they've never done before. I can't control them. Maybe it's the goblins setting off all those explosions? I don't know ... Perhaps you could deal with them for me?"
You don't find anything wrong us such (except if you count an excessive amount of snakeskin leather clothing and accessories as 'wrong'), but you can't help thinking that the untidy nature of the room almost makes it look as if it's been ransacked, rather than just generally left in an untidy state.
Never one to be overly diplomatic, Jasminder spends her time in the hut standing silently off to the side, allowing those with more skill at speaking to coax help from the frightened Halfling.
At the mention of "dealing with" the snakes, her ears prick up though. She does have a certain fondness for the reptiles, but not so much that she wont kill them if it comes to it.
Tannithil says nothing, just gazes suspiciously at Walthus.
"If you can spare a moment, Walthus," Haelynn asks softly, "I will tend to your leg. I doubt the Eternal Rose will withhold her blessings from you."
Marc follows the others into the house and looks around. He looks critically at Walthus as the others question him, convinced he's not telling the whole truth.
"Ah ... alright," says Walthus, rolling up his pants leg to reveal two nasty looking puncture marks surrounded by a swollen, red area of skin.
"Well...,"
"...just a moment."
Haelynn lays her hands on Walthus’ wounded leg and calls on the Eternal Rose to grant her healing grace. The healing prayer seems less effective than normal – while the bite marks heal up very slightly, the spell does little to reduce the swelling.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
Starting at the reaction to her healing, Haelynn stiffens for a moment before smiling at Walthus to hide her surprise, "I must apologise, Walthus, I am not as skilled in healing as my fellow clerics." She spends a moment binding his leg, and uses the opportunity to make eye contact with Marc. Her face showing her concern.
Walthus pulls quickly away from Haelynn and rolls his pants leg back down. “Thanks,” he mumbles.
"Do we have time to deal with these snakes? We are really here for the goblins, and if Walthus doesn't know anything useful..."
Marc takes in Haelynn's look and gives her the tiniest of nods. Her concern gives some comfort that he is not the only one thinking the halfling's story is not quite adding up.
He casually circles around behind Walthus, surveying the halfling for weapons and scanning the room for any other lurking dangers. When he arrives, he suddenly moves forward and clamps a hand down on the Walthus' shoulder.
'Now that you have tried to feed us a whole lot of horse dung, I'm going to ask you for the truth. What have you done with the real Walthus?'
Walthus starts when Marc puts his large hand on the halfling's small shoulder, then snarls angrily and pulls away as the cavalier begins questioning him.
"If I knew that, I'd be sleeping better," the halfling snarls cryptically, stepping away from Marc as his features seem to writhe and melt.
Marc draws his sword and readies to face the creature posing as Walthus.
Yumiko has no real way of knowing what's happening, so assume she's still stuffing around upstairs until stuff gets noisy.