"I am willing to accept this role. Would this be a temporary title or a permanent commitment? I can accept either readily."
"The field commission would last for the duration of the investigation," the commander replies, her eyes appraising Micheo. "However, if you serve with honor and distinction, and if you were so inclined, a permanent rank could be conferred."
"Understood. I will accept the field commission, and we will see after this investigation is complete."
"I for one am willing to aid you during your investigations, I will engage or refrain from activities at your direction Micheo."
After gathering some additional information, the commander wastes little time in delivering a brief but direct pronouncement.
"I, Commander Ingrid Odeber, as an Eagle Knight bear witness that this man, Micheo Barbulcus, seeks to pledge himself to protecting the ideals of liberty in service to the Free Peoples of Andoran," she declares in a firm though quiet voice. "I confer upon him the brevet of corporal so that he may protect the welfare of Andoran with authority and dispatch. May Talmandor guide him."
She delivers a well-practiced salute, welcoming Micheo into the ranks of the Diamond Company.
"We have already secured Consortium ledgers from the magistrate that purport to document their finances. However, Specialist Tobblemouth has deduced that these are likely fraudulent, meant to deceive authorities such as ourselves. I abhor gambling, but if I were to place a wager on anything, it's that Kreed kept the real ledgers alongside the Consortium's payroll in his manor.
"Finding those documents could be a killing blow to the Consortium in the long term. In the short term, securing the payroll and seeing it properly distributed to the workers would go a long ways towards building good will with the local residents."
Micheo salutes in return.
"I do so pledge. I believe that an immediate and thorough investigation of Kreed Manor is in order. Inconnu, I accept your aid. Friends, will you join us?"
”I would follow you into the worldwound if you asked me. So of course I’ll follow you to Kreed’s Manor.” Ulark said, with a smile.
'I'm with you, Micheo, I don't reckon I'll be able to rest easy until Kimi and her family are out under the thumb of Kreed's goons.' Dugan attempts to copy the much sharper salutes.
"Unlike his workers, it seems that Kreed paid his sellswords in advance," the commander says, her eyes straying like loosed arrows towards the late gavel's manor. "They guard his home yet.
"Alongside Kreed's attack dog, Boss Teedum, they denied our initial entry into the house. I did not press the issue at the time lest a needless fight erupt. Perhaps you can convince them to stand down or even persuade young Jurin Kreed to dismiss them."
"Jurin's heart is good, he'll care that the consortium aren't paying the workers. That might be the best approach to get him to have them step aside. Some of the thugs wont want their deeds uncovered and might try to block us regardless."
"I think that approach is likeliest to avoid needless bloodshed. I am proud to have such companions."
'Hopefully the boy harbors some good will towards us, on account of us saving his life and all.'
The commander dismisses the party, now ostensibly under the guidance if not command of Corporal Barbulcus, leaving you to investigate Kreed Manor as she returns inside the Consortium offices, presumably to resume questioning Kabran Bloodeye.
It is a short walk across the High Market from the offices to the manor, but the difference between the two buildings is like night and day. The fieldstone walls around the Consortium offices are cracked and crumbling, while the ten-foot darkwood walls that cradle Kreed Manor appear recently washed.
A pair of green-cloaked enforcers stand in front of the manor's iron gates, lazily leaning upon the hafts of their broad-bladed glaives. The perk up and straighten their posture when they see you approach. Likewise, a pair of guards sitting atop the manor roof rise to their feet and take up their crossbows, watching you carefully.
"Best turn around the way you came," one of the guards barks. "This place is off limits."
'Corporal?' Dugan says with a smirk, turning to Micheo.
"Corporal Barbulcus has business with young master Kreed. No need to get worked up about it."
Micheo, at the front of the group, speaks.
"I am Corporal Micheo Barbulcus, servant of Sarenrae and member of the Diamond Company. I am following through with an investigation within Kreed Manor. I ask that you comply with the law and stand down."
The thickly muscled guards exchange nervous glances and tighten their grips upon their glaives.
"Oi! Listen up!" one of them calls to the rooftop guards, cupping his calloused hands around his mouth to amplify his voice."Tell young master Kreed that he's got visitors!"
He turns back to you, an acrid and sour smell upon his breath.
"Wait here. We'll see if the young master wants to speak with you."
Your appeal has worked upon these mercenaries, at least as well as you could hope. They remain unwilling to part and open the gates to admit you within the manor grounds, but they no longer seem bent on turning you away - at least for the time being.
There is an interminable wait for any sign of reply. During this time, the guards taunt you, promising that the young master Kreed "probably ain't interested in jawing with the likes of you." These jibes are immediately undone as Jurin emerges from the manor's front doors and marches down the gray stone path to the gate.
The moon-faced, tow-headed boy stands on the other side of the black iron bars. He looks far more haggard than a child of only eleven years has any right to look.
"What do you want?" he asks in a cracking voice, his tone somewhere between hurt and angry.
”Do you remember us? I...that is, we, are here to investigate the manor. Look, the workers haven’t been getting paid. Micheo here has been deputized, and we have reason to believe that the pay is hidden inside. When the plague came, we did what was needed to help the town. Didn’t ask for anything. Well, we are here again to do what is right. Please, let us in. We come with no ill-will to you and yours.”
"Aye, Jurin. There are working folk without pay. We can not allow that to stand. So we would like to search within the manor for what is rightfully theirs. Is that acceptable to you?"
"Of course I remember you. You saved me and my friends," the boy says, pouting, as though it pains him to admit the debt.
"Everyone's been saying awful things about my father. They keep talking about how they're glad he's dead. How they're glad you killed him," he says, directing eyes full of complex, bitter turmoil towards Ulark.
"He always paid his workers on time. If he was still around, there'd be no problem."
This orphaned child is deeply conflicted. Much like Kimi, he looks up to you as heroes, having rescued him and his friends from the kobolds and delivered the town from the Blackscour. However, his young mind has great difficulty reconciling this with the slaying of his father. Similarly, he cannot bring himself to admit the sins his father committed, and Jurin feels an obligation to defend him in death.
However, your appeals begin to wear away the barriers that the boy has raised around himself.
'Jurin, I know you loved your Pa, no one is faulting you that. But from all accounts he was a hard man. He was cruel and leaned on scaring people rather than earning and keeping their respect. That's going to earn him ill will with those in his wake.' Dugan frowns for a moment, then smiles at the boy. 'But he was still your Pa. Best you can do for him is show them all he produced a strong, smart, respectable son. One that can bring honor back to the Kreed name.'
"Indeed. Your father would have made sure that the workers were paid. Will you help us to manage that now?"
"There's another reason you should let us in. You know your father defended areas... he trained animals as guards. They answer to no one but him but they must be getting hungry. We think they're up on the top floor, if they get loose you and your family are in danger. Half starved at this stage, even your father couldn't get them to settle down now."
Jurin visibly struggles to hold back his tears, afraid to cry in front of the guards his father hired.
"I do want to be better," he croaks with a sniffle.
He bids the guards to open the gates and allow you inside. When they respond with looks of incredulity, he repeats the request - framing it more forcefully as a command. Without any further delay, they push open the groaning iron gate and begrudgingly admit you into the manor grounds.
"You're right. I've heard awful sounds upstairs," Jurin confides in Inconnu as he escorts the party along the walkway. "Father's beasts are hungry and restless. I've been too scared to sleep."
'We'll take care of it. Have you been out to see your friends since everything happened? I know Kimi was worried about you.' Dugan keeps pace just behind the boy, allowing him to lead in his own house.
Micheo solely addresses Jurin as he advances.
"Thank you, Jurin."
"No, I haven't been to see them," Jurin admits. He lowers his voice, lest any of the distant guards hear, and adds, "I haven't even gone to read to Mikra in a week. He's probably so hurt and confused."
"I'll tell you what, once we have made the upstairs safe how about we see if Mikra and the others would like to come visit you here? We'd walk with them to the front of your house. You just let the guards know its ok for them to come in. If you'd like I could stay around a short while to tell you a few stories ye might not know?" Inconnu smiles at Jurin. "Or if you'd like to go to them I'm sure we can figure something out."
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A wistful smile returns to Jurin's face when Inconnu makes his suggestion. He leads you up to the broad double doors, carved of solid darkwood, set in the stony, fortress-like face of the manor. Unlike the thickly muscled men at the gates, the guard who leans beside the doors is lean and wiry. A jagged scar cuts across his nose, and his sharp chin is covered in stubble.
"Password?" he croaks.
"Oh come on, Yancy," Jurin whines. "You just saw me walk between the door and the gate!"
"Password?" the thug repeats, unmoved by the child's impertinence.
"Do you really think I'm some shape-shifting hag? Do you really think that happened right in front of your eyes in the past minute?"
"Pass. Word."
With a pout and a stamp of his foot, Jurin puts aside his frustration and leans in close to whisper this apparent password.
Satisfied, Yancy allows Jurin to open the doors and escort you inside, while the guard himself remains outside. You pass through a plain, wood-paneled hallway with a flagstone floor. Passing through the inner set of double doors, you are ushered into the most opulent hall you've seen anywhere in Darkmoon Vale.
The center of the entrance hall is dominated by a carpeted staircase that leads up to the second floor. A pair of stone statues flanks the stairs, with the one on the left having clearly been better polished and cared for than the other.
"Father's room is upstairs and on the right," Jurin explains, pointing towards the overhanging balcony above, "And his office is on the left. I've never been inside there."
Jurin redirects your attention to a corner of the first floor, just to your right.
"My room is over there, down the hall from the kitchen and across from the servants' room."
"Cutyard Queen"
Micheo nods at Jurin.
"We shall act respectfully. This is your home after all."
He turns to his companions:
"Let us begin our investigation here first. That statue of Aroden as a lumberjack, opposite the statue of Jurin's grandfather, is a little unusual."
Micheo walks over and studies it briefly.
Inconnu nods and starts checking both statues to see if there are any switches, they might have a hidden means of disabling a trap.
Ulark nodded, as he kept his eyes out. He was a simple man, who had lived a simple life. Now he had to think ‘where would I hide a treasure trove if I was a sadistic psychopath whom everyone hated and feared?’ It was not an easy task. He kept his axe held in his right hand, lest anyone decide to make a move on them.
As Joanne quietly shares the overheard password with the rest of the party, she, Inconnu, and Micheo quickly grasp the significance. A popular rumor around the logging camps and tables at Jak'a'Napes claims that Kreed kept a secret mistress out in the woods. What's more, these rumors also claim that this "cutyard queen" was no less than fey sorceress, and her influence helped the Gavel stay in power.
Although the statue of Aroden is not as well cared for as that of Jurin's grandfather, Inconnu quickly notices how worn the statue's belt buckle is, in contrast to the rest of the statue's dusty features. Sure enough, the buckle is in fact a button that can be pressed - to what effect, though, remains to be seen.
"Father would send me to my room whenever he had guests, like Boss Teedum or even Director Gol from Oregent," Jurin speaks up, watching you examine the statue. "Once I snuck out and watched him. He pressed that button before letting anyone climb the stairs. He also told me to never climb those stairs for any reason."
"That is very helpful, Jurin. Thank you.", Micheo says as he reaches to press the buckle.
Dugan eyes the lanky guardsmen as he walks by, appraising the man.
'All your Pa's men act like that towards you?' Dugan asks the boy.
"They obeyed father. They don't owe no loyalty to me," Jurin finally squeaks in response to Dugan's question.
Beneath Micheo's touch, the button upon the statue's belt buckle sinks inward and sticks in place with a click. Out of the corner of your eye, you see some kind of flicker upon the stairs, giving you the impression that some kind of magical ward has faded.
"Are...are you going upstairs now? What should I do?" Jurin asks.
”Stay safe. Don’t know what we find when we go up, but we don’t want you to get hurt. And if we don’t return, and the gold does come up, don’t forget what belongs to the people of this town.”
Ulark knew that the boy probably hated him, but he hoped that the lad would hear the sincerity in his voice.
"You stay safe down here, have a bit to eat and read a book. We dealt with those kobolds well enough didn't we? Don't be worrying about us."
"Take care and stay safe, Jurin. We will try not to spend overlong upstairs."
Jurin nods, wordlessly agreeing to Ulark's request.
The boy stands at the foot of the stairs, in the shadow of the statue of his grandfather, and nervously watches you climb the stairs to explore the upper floor of his home that even he has not seen. Heeding your advice, he slinks away out of sight to leave you to your business.
A thin carpet, caked with dust, lines the balcony that overlooks the entrance hall below. A few wood-cut prints adorn the wooden walls, including a chart of Darkmoon Vale. Six doors line the walls of this upper level, offering entrance to unknown rooms beyond.
Once Jurin is away, Micheo says quietly:
"I am glad that Jurin should be safe, regardless of what befalls us up here. He did say that his father's room was on the right. Let us try right first."
Ulark went to the door, put his left hand on the handle and held his axe with the right. ”Everyone ready? Stand back...”
Micheo nods, staring at the door.
'I intend to have a word with Kreed's men. If they want to continue to live under this roof they need to start respecting it's new master.' Dugan nods his readiness to Ulark.
"True enough, lets give them few bits to think on. I think it best after this we all stay in town for a bit make sure things pan out like they should." Inconnu keeps an eye out for traps and secret doors... Kreed was always cunning.
"I am in agreement. Much wrong was done here and it will not be undone overnight."
The outer door is untrapped and unlocked, but it only opens onto a narrow hallway beyond. Doors sit on either end, with a third upon the opposite wall on the right hand side. The left-most door, however, draws your attention. The fervent scratching of an animal reverberates upon the unseen, opposite side of the door. This is accompanied by panting and low growling. This noisy door shows no signs of traps, but it is locked, and that is to say nothing of whatever eager animal waits beyond.
"That must one of Kreed's starving hounds. We should put an end to that creature's misery, and its threat."
”I am ready. Open the door.” Ulark took up a defensive stance.