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"Elm is dead." the priest whispers so none of the townspeople can hear him. "This is Constable Tivareau, she's going to lead you to the crime scene. Thank you for your help."
Constable Elise Tivareau is fair, levelheaded, and commands Rosehaven’s guards — a small militia that spends most of its time on other tasks like repairs and harvesting, given Rosehaven’s relatively peaceful existence.
She is rarely called upon to investigate crimes more serious than petty theft, and this is her first murder investigation. She believes that it is her responsibility to shield the people of Rosehaven from the grisly details, so she is relieved to have your assistance in the investigation.
Constable Tivareau leads you several miles outside of town to a small farmhouse surrounded by pumpkin patches. She heads off with one guard, and another stays behind to politely but insistently urge you to follow.
Once at the farm, you see a middle-aged man's body lying on the ground about 50 feet away from the front door. His battered corpse is facedown and wrapped in pumpkin vines. The vines wrapping Elm’s body do not cover it entirely; they encircle his arms and legs, and one vine even wraps around his head, holding his jaw open. Underneath the vines, Elm’s clothing is torn and singed in places. Patches of brown fungus are scattered on the ground near his body.
Elm has a combination of rows of puncture wounds from a creature with a wide maw, severe bruises, and burn wounds.
He died some time in the last 2 days.
He died between 8 and 16 hours ago.
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Raijan looks on the scene with a haunted expression.
Who was he? If this was murder and not mayhem, there aren't many who would have - who could have done something like this.
While Tivereau explains, Raijan busies himself examining the scene more carefully, looking for any large footprints, whether Elm was dragged out his house to here, or whether this was where he was attacked, where the fire came from.
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"Well, everybody could come here. But I doubt somebody from Rosehaven would have done this. Everybody loved him. He lived alone, no wife, no children. Who would kill a farmer? There's nothing to steal from this man." the Constable answers.
Kaminari has a look around, but finds nothing out of order. The door to Elm's house has been left ajar.
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The Constable follows you closely while you move into Elm's house.
Elm lived in a small, one-room farmhouse. His home is dirty but uncluttered. The house contains a bed, a desk, a table, two chairs, a chest of clothes, a shelf of food and cooking supplies, and a fireplace. Two pieces of paper lie on the desk.
"Elm always felt more comfortable allowing dirt, leaves, and other pieces of nature to creep into his living space than he did living in a tidy room." Constable Tivareau says while looking around.
A small wooden piece which looks like a tree radiates strong conjuration magic.
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You find a masterwork sickle.
The first of the pieces of paper contains notes about moss and a cryptic part, and the second is a map of the area around Rosehaven with X’s marking 10 different locations.
Whisperwort: The darkness tightening like ivy, goes
and comes and goes, looking, seeking, like branches
grasping. Life to soil to life, taken to soil again.
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the cryptic
note is a transcript of a conversation that Elm had with
the speak with plants spell and notices that the number
of X’s on the map matches the number of times that the
word “whisperwort” is underlined in the note
You know that whisperwort is a colloquial term for a species of red peat moss.
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Quentin examines the two discarded pieces of paper. "I'm not sure what this passage means. Something about ivy and what looks like a reference to the natural cycle of life and death. The marks on this map circle the town."
He looks to the constable, "Do you think he was investigating something around the town? Maybe something that someone didn't want investigated."
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The constable looks at the notes and the map, but can't help you with any useful information. "The X's don't mark anything special. It looks like they were set randomly on the map. This one is near the docks. And this one is close to the temple."
"When you finished your investigation, I think we should return to Rosehaven and talk to Bertinand." Constable Tivareau says and moves outside.
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You follow Constable Tivareau back to Rosehaven. The gourd-carving portion of the festival has concluded, and the villagers have begun returning to their homes. It's already afternoon and fog begins to cover the ground. You see a group of villagers in the village square engaged in heated conversation. As you, a woman visibly gestures toward you. It's a gesture of accusation.
Once closer to the group you hear the villagers discuss wheather your time of appearance in this town has something to do with Elm's death.
Constable Tivareau moves to calm the people, telling them that she will have proof of your innocence soon enough. "Listen, they voluntarily help with the investigations about Elm's death. If they were murderers, why should they do this?"
And to avoid any further incidents between you and the villagers she escorts you to to the Silver Flute Inn, where she explains the situation.
"I do not personally believe that you are guilty of the crime, but I cannot conclusively remove you from my list of suspects yet. I have to place you under house arrest for the night." Constable Tivareau explains. "I'm going to pay for your stay and food and drinks for the rest of your stay."
She asks for the name of the boat that carried you to Rosehaven, sending a messenger to speak with someone who can vouch for them. In all likelihood, she claims, she will have proof of your innocence by morning.
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Obviously pumpkin carving would lead directly to being placed under arrest for murder, Raijan fluffs out his feathers brusquely.
We may as well solve it. Leaving this kind of thing to fester is exactly how you get Worldwounds.
With angry villagers around though, we should definitely keep watch tonight.
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"You don't trust the constable to keep us safe?" he asks Kaminari. "To be fair, he's already shown himself to be a far more reasonable man than others by not immediately chaining us and actually collecting the easily accessible exonerating evidence. I'll keep watch if it'll make you feel safer, but I trust the villagers to not storm in here so shortly after the absurd accusation has been laid."
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Tivareau departs and leaves four village guards to make sure you stay inside.
The inn’s owner Ivy apologizes repeatedly to you about the situation, and does her best to keep you in good spirits with food, drink, and music.
Elm was a well-respected citizen of Rosehaven who used his knowledge of plants and his druidic magic to help his fellow farmers supplement their harvests. When he was not assisting in the fields, he preferred to keep to himself, and he lived alone.
No one in Rosehaven witnessed the murder, nor did anyone hear him crying for help.
Someone mentions seeing a halfling-sized creature with a pumpkin head and a viny body skulking in the fields.
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Raijan makes it very clear that as far as he's concerned, he's still very much an investigator in the murder, After all, in my experience, one of the surest ways to find yourself investigating a murder is to be randomly accused of it!
Despite his brashness, the young tengu quickly gets the rest of the guests talking, revealing that Elm kept to himself, was in fact a druid, and that all though no one was witness to his murder...
A pumpkin monster?! You're telling me you saw some little pumpkin-vine-fiend skulking in the fields? Whose fields? Where?!
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"We could always wait twelve years for the Society to send a rescue," Quentin chuckles as he shares in the food offered to them. "Thank you, Ivy."
"A pumpkin monster? Are you sure they didn't mean a halfling or gnome wearing a pumpkin on his--or her--head?" he asks after the tengu relays the results of his conversations.
He looks at Igna and raises an eyebrow. "Was that ever a question?"