Reading between Marikel's lines enough to know that the cleric intended to take their initial approval to 'look into things' as enough grounds to allow a tunnel search without needing explicit and further approval from Halgra, Vhailor smiled and bounced along behind the pack again - needing a hurried gait to keep the pace. Somewhat surprised that the hund is still on a trail of any kind he muses "I'll be real impressed if the dog can keep to that once we hit the 'Stones... must be about to get real stinky for his nose there."
As Vhailor predicts, the hound begins to whine with confusion as the group nears the Barterstones. The local farmers have gotten a later than usual start after the previous evening's festivities, but there are already a few horses with their drays at the open-air market. There are no fresh crops this late in the winter, of course, but carrots, onions, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, and winter squash are still stored in root cellars and brought into town for sale, as well as sacks of dried beans and grains. Bumpus traces meandering figures on the rocky ground in distress, unable to pick up the older trail with so many other scents fresh in the vicinity.
"Maybe we should try the Ramblehouse," Ali suggests as the hound gets lost in riot of scents at the Barterstones.
Remembering his conversation with Marikel from earlier Vhailor turns to him and asks "Should we check the bottom of the cliff for juic... I mean, should we check for blood? Bumpus might be able to get a sniff off whoever dumped the body as well? - even if to just confirm if it is or isn't the same?"
Marikel nods to Alicia.
"Checking the Ramblehouse is a good idea. Bumpus may be able to confirm that this half orc you saw is the one that went to the cliff edge. And then the main gates to see if it's the same half orc again that came in this morning. And then on to the bottom of the cliff," Marikel gestures an open hand to Vhailor to credit him the idea, [/b]"so we can find any further clues."[/b]
He looks about to make sure all are in accordance.
"If you'd be so kind, Miss Jess."
The half-elf gives the priest's impeccable manners a suspicious glare but tugs the dog away from the confusion of scents around the Barterstones. "Backtrack, Bumpus," she tells the hound, pulling him back toward the road into town. Once inside, she encourages him toward the Ramblehouse. "Come on, Bumpus, find the bastard."
Invigorated, the hound pads up to the front door of the inn, which Jess opens. Bumpus charges in, raising a chorus of protests from the interior of the Ramblehouse.
Banny's face falls a little when the hound loses the trail in the busy grounds of the Barterstones. As Vhailor says, it's perhaps only to be expected, but... still disappointing, when all she wants is to grab whatever bastards took one of her closest friends from her and shake them until the truth rattles out.
She trudges wordlessly after the others on the way back to the inn, her eyes fixed on the dusty ground-- looking up only at the shouting from annoyed guests.
"...oops," Banny grunts, breaking into a jog after the dog and Jess.
"Sorry, Cham! Don't mind us! Dog's just trackin' a scent! Sorry-- oop, watch out there!" Banny says, steadying someone who Bumpus nearly knocked over in his rush through.
Marikel heads towards the inn, thinks better of it and stays outside, catching Alicia.
"Miss Alicia? You said you'd been here already. Miss Blackblade suggested Cham may have some useful information. Have you already...?"
Marikel looks to Vhailor, then back to Alicia and sighs.
"What did she say?"
Vhailor half opens his mouth to seek clarification from Marikel, before his head catches up with the cleric's and he instead proffers a simple "Oh" and waits to be filled in on what Miss Alicia might know.
The common area of the Ramblehouse is a jumble of mismatched furniture, tables, chairs, and overstuffed couches, some human-sized and others scaled for Small folk, in approximately equal numbers. At the moment, the room is in even greater a state of disorder than usual, due to the large hound trailing a half-elf on a length of rope taking up most of the empty floor space. Patrons who moments ago were enjoying coffee and gossip are fleeing for their rooms.
An infuriated Cham Larringfass is standing atop the check-in counter. "Jess Meeson!" she howls. "What in the Nine Hells do you mean by bringing your filthy, flea-bitten, good-for-nothing carcass into a respectable establishment?"
"Bumpus ain't no more filthy nor flea-ridden than your guests!" Jess retorts, deeply offended.
"And who says I was speaking about the dog?" Cham sneers back as Banny rushes in to smooth things over.
"Sorry, Cham! Don't mind us! Dog's just trackin' a scent! Sorry-- oop, watch out there!" Banny says, steadying someone who Bumpus nearly knocked over in his rush through.
"Banny Kneebreaker!" the halfling spits, pleased to have another target for her venom. "Is this another of your damned drunken pranks?"
"Guy claimed to be a prospector," Ali says as an aside to Marikel. "Signed in under a false name, of course. I inquired about him last night, saying he had set up an appointment with the mission, but Cham let him know someone had been looking for him and he claimed that he was skipping town because the mission was interested in investing in his prospecting business and he didn't want to deal with the 'paladins' because he's no friend of Lastwall and thinks Trunau should remain independent."
Marikel frowns, ignoring the ruckus from within the inn.
"Hmm, they may not be local but they know the town well enough to ingratiate themselves."
Somthing clicks."What were you doing following... later."
Marikel shakes his head.
"If this is the same half-orc seen coming into town this morning, I doubt he's left. He may be hiding out in the tunnels. Or in someone's basement."
He glances meaningfully towards the Sawyer's place.
"Too much chance of being seen in daylight. He'll probably leave early tonight. We need to hurry things up."
"So we're looking for a half-orc that probably doesn't want to be found and might be getting hidden by people as well... seems a bit of a waste to have us all following after Bumpus if there's a time crunch. Should we split up and cover a bit more territory apart rather than together?"
"Banny Kneebreaker!" the halfling spits, pleased to have another target for her venom. "Is this another of your damned drunken pranks?"
"No, I ain't drunk enough yet today for that," Banny answers, regretfully. "Hound's trackin' somebody-- we'll be outta your hair a whole lot sooner you jes' let us pass through?"
Whether Cham is inclined to let the tracking party pass through or not, Bumpus is determined to. While Jess is hanging back to get in another word, the hound tugs the end of the rope out of her hand and sets off baying down the hallway.
Ali bolts past Marikel, following the sound of the hound's baying into the inn proper.
Raising an eyebrow Vhailor shrugs "Or we could just all hare off after the wee dog..." feeling Carbonel nuzzle into the back of his ear a moment "I might just hold here a step from the chaos first though"
Marikel fold his arms and leans back against the wall.
"I'll wait until they come back. No sense adding to the chaos. We just need to know if this half-orc was the same one that jumped over the ledge."
Alicia enters the Ramblehouse just in time to spy Bumpus haring down the same corridor Cham escorted her through earlier. The halfling and Jess Meeson are staring daggers at one another, but the loose dog distracts both women from their animosity. They pursue Bumpus down the corridor to find him scratching at the door of the room Alicia was in earlier that morning.
"He'll ruin the finish!" Cham protests. "You'll be paying to have the door redone, Jess Meeson!"
Nodding sagely and picking up on the echoing sounds of excitement Vhailor adds "Aye... seems like it is." Not entirely sure what to do with his hands as he waits Vhailor first tries crossing his arms... then into the pockets... then a span as limp fish hanging in limbo... before finally retrieving a half-formed lump of wood and beginning to slowly shape it with his diminutive knife.
Ali chases after the hound, then opens the door (to prevent the dog from scratching the finish) with a raised eyebrow at Cham. "Are there any other 'secrets' to this room, Cham? Besides the false-bottomed drawer? Maybe a tunnel?"
"What?" the halfling squawks. "There are no tunnels in the Ramblehouse. We're at ground level. We don't even have a basement!"
Bumpus pushes under the mattress with his nose, turns around in a few tight circles end to end, and wags his tail broadly at Jess as she grabs the end of his lead once more.
Alicia takes the hint and attempts to lift the mattress up enough to see what it is that Bumpus has found.
Banny blinks as Bumpus goes tearing off further into the inn, and as Jess and Cham in turn give chase. "Well," Banny says, and hustles after, along with Alicia.
She comes into the room a few seconds after the others, on account of having shorter legs, but sees Alicia manhandling the mattress? Well, worth a shot-- Banny reaches for the other end, to help the girl pick up the bulky thing. "What've we got here?" Banny mutters, peering beneath.
Alas, it appears that Bumpus was only honing in on the bed as the object in the room heaviest with the scent he's following, the room's occupant having slept on it. There is nothing to be found beneath the mattress.
"Get this damned animal out of here!" Cham insists. "I'm running an inn, not a barnyard!"
Ali sighs. "Well, I'd say this is strong evidence that our 'man' was Mr I.P. Freley," she says, giving Cham a pointed look.
"Damn," Banny mutters at nothing under the mattress. "Makes sense, tho, I guess-- if he came in an' slept on it, his smell woulda gotten into it.... yeah, I think that's a fair guess," she nods to Alicia.
"Well, I dunno there's much more to get in here other than Bumpus angerin' Cham further..."
"Come along, Bumpus," Jess sniffs with great dignity. "We surely don't want to spend any more time than necessary in an establishment that harbors criminals."
Having sniffed his man to ground, Bumpus responds readily to the tug on his lead, trotting back toward the front door with canine equanimity. As he and Jess pass another closed door, however, he stops and whines. Putting his nose to the floor, he looks up at Jess imploringly.
"Same scent?" she asks with a frown. "Cham Larringfass, unlock this door and show us who you're hiding!"
Ali breaks out her lockpicks and makes to pick the lock, without even waiting for Cham to open it. In fact, the girl grins at the halfling as she does so.
Banny starts following Jess and Alicia out, only to blink at Bumpus's honing in on a scent. A second blink when Alicia simply takes the initiative to... unlock a door...?
"Oh lordy," Banny mumbles to herself. "Hey, we can't just go openin' locks in other people's businesses... Alicia!"
Banny moves to put a heavy hand on Alicia's shoulder. If this, coincidentally, puts her both between Cham and the human girl, and also at the ready in case someone aggressive is on the other side of that door, well.... mayhap that's luck and mayhap it's not.
Having stopped to close I. P. Freley's erstwhile door behind her, Cham jogs up behind the other three women, red-faced and out of breath. "What are you--? You can't go breaking into my guest's rooms! Wait, that one's empty...."
The lock clicks beneath Alicia' tender ministrations, and the door opens to reveal a room much like the other, except that the bed and desk are pushed together in the middle of the floor. Approximately three-quarters of the walls display a fresh coat of whitewash, the dinginess accumulated by the unpainted remnant accentuated by the contrast.
"See? I told you!" Cham scowls. "Being painted. No one's stayed in this room for weeks."
Nevertheless, the hound slips in, touching its nose to the mattress and looking to Jess for approval.
"And when someone was in this room, it was your friend Freley?" the half-elf asks airily. "Bumpus has sniffed out the same scent."
Ali steps into the room and looks around, first at the walls (comparing the unpainted and re-painted parts), then the bed and the desk (especially in case the desk has another 'secret' compartment). "What was your friend doing when he was here in this room? Convenient time to repaint it."
Marikel shuffles uncomfortably.
"It's gone awful quiet in there."
He looks around nervously, but settles back stiffly against the wall.
Vhailor almost perks up to say that he could make it louder if Marikel really wanted... but thinks better of the suggestion. Instead, as he continues to work the wood, he asks a more directed question "What made you go in for the Herald's work then? She doesn't get much love where I grew up... something about rules and things like that..."
"I didn't so much go in for it- I was born to it. Both my parents were crusaders for the faith. I was born between missions. They raised me and when they were away the church looked after me. Rules meant the church could rely on them and they could rely on the church. One mission... they never came back from. So the church raised me. The church is my family now. I serve Iomedae and she serves me."
With brow slightly furrowed Vhailor uses his own experience base to process the information provided by Marikel and then respond in kind "Makes it sound a bit like a family business... I would've been a librarian or a flute maker if I stepped only in the footprints of mum and dad. Makes me understand why you're so nice-ish to Ruby though... what with you both being orphans and all." said conversationally.
"Nice that the church is like a family though... looks a bit more stern from the outside's all. I read a book on what she got up to and it had some pretty scary pictures... all swords and battle and chopping wings off..." Carb taking an opportunity to nuzzle his ear and provoke an instinctual scratch from Vhailor - taking his attention from the whittling a while "Family's nice."
Banny squints into the room, head twisting from left to right between Jess's righteous indignation, Alicia's suspicions, and Cham's annoyance. She frowns, her forehead drawing together with frustration lines and old scars.
"Listen," she says unhappily to Cham. "Fella we're tryin' to track... we're trailin' him because he took someone else's hopeknife. Not just anyone-- that girl from yesterday, Ruby. So new she ain't had the chance to even get a nick on it yet, an' some dog-son took it off her... uh, no offense, Bumpus..."
"Anyway-- that's the scent th' dog's followin'-- the smell of who was handlin' that knife. Now I know 'm no saint, but some things oughtta be sacred, don't you think? If some lowlife who goes and steals the knife of the newest Trunau defender is usin' your fine place to get away with stuff, I bet you wanna see him caught too, right?"
"Your dog needs his nose examined," Cham protests. "This Freley, when he checked in, it was the first time I'd seen him. You can check my records. She already made me drag them all out this morning," she shrugs toward Alicia.
"Just coincidence we're painting now," she sniffs. "It's an inn: lots of rooms and lots of upkeep. We're always painting somewhere: finish with one room and move on to the next. It's like being a farmer; you don't weed your garden once and expect it to stay that way until harvest."
She turns to Banny. "Fellow took a knife? She told me it had to do with the Grath boy taking a flyer. What's this really all about?" The halfling's eyes narrow, flickering between suspicion and curiosity.
"Both," Ali says, still looking the room over. "Someone planted someone else's hopeknife at the scene to make it look like suicide. Clearly, 'Freley' was using this room, probably while he was still staying in the other one."
"Nice that the church is like a family though... looks a bit more stern from the outside's all. I read a book on what she got up to and it had some pretty scary pictures... all swords and battle and chopping wings off..." Carb taking an opportunity to nuzzle his ear and provoke an instinctual scratch from Vhailor - taking his attention from the whittling a while "Family's nice."
Marikel folds and unfolds his arms.
"Iomedae is not the sort of good that sits back and lets evil flourish. Too many times evil can only understand violence. Iomedae did what had to be done for the betterment of life on our world. But to those who are good and loyal, she shows only kindness. We who serve are her children. We are very much family," Marikel recites.
He looks over his shoulder into the inn.
Vhailor nods as he continues to whittle, less concerned than Marikel at exactly what's transpiring within the Ramblehouse - as he's sure those within will emerge eventually with news of findings and his gaze would do little to hasten that.
"Clearly, 'Freley' was using this room, probably while he was still staying in the other one."
"I don't know a thing about that," Cham replies obstinately. "Just as likely, her dog's taken a liking to the smell of straw tick. Or someone cleaned the other room, then came in here to paint this one, and he's sniffing the wrong person."
Apart from a stepladder and a pile of rags and brushes with a pot of paint, there seems to be nothing in this room that didn't have a counterpart in the other. This mattress is rolled up and tied with a bit of twine on the bare bedstead and the chair is sitting atop the desk to leave space for the painters to maneuver all around the walls.
"If you think I'm letting that hound go door to door and sniff at my guests' belongings, you're crazy as a sheepherder," she says firmly. "Get it out of here."
Finishing up her search of the room with a piqued quirk of her lips, Ali unrolls the straw tick and examines it for blood. Assuming she doesn't find any, and that Bumpus doesn't start snuffling at it, she rolls it up again and places it where she found it before going over to examine the painted walls. "If I looked under this layer of paint, I wouldn't find dried blood, would I?" she asks as she unsheathes her dagger.
Banny rubs at her forehead (and the hangover from yesterday). She steps closer to the girl with the dagger, muttering to her quietly, in a forestalling fashion.
"Alicia, I wanna find this dog-son as much as anyone, but we ain't the guard, you know? We got no actual law on our side here-- an' we keep bangin' on Cham with no proof, she's gonna go complain to Halgra that our 'investigation' is damaging her business. 'Specially if you go scratchin' at th' walls and stuff. And then we'll be that much harder up to actually find th' fella who did this.
"I think th' dog'd be goin' wilder if there was blood... I don't know if I buy Cham bein' in on no cover-up. But if we push it with her, we just rile her up. We got other leads, like them tunnels.... maybe we'll find proof, if Cham is on it, but otherwise we're collapsin' a mineshaft right now."
She does give Cham a thoughtful sidelong glance as she speaks, all the same.
"C'mon, Jess, you been a real help to us, you an' Bumpus both, but I guess we're overstayin' th' landlady's welcome," Banny says, trying to calm Jess's indignation much as she is attempting to calm Alicia's suspicions.
"If I looked under this layer of paint, I wouldn't find dried blood, would I?" she asks as she unsheathes her dagger.
"You scrape up my fresh paint, you'll find yourself repainting the room," Cham returns hotly. "Maybe the rooms on either side of it, too, if I go tell the priests at the mission you've been vandalizing my inn. I don't know what that damned cur is smelling, but Freley hasn't ever been in here, as far as I know."
"C'mon, Jess, you been a real help to us, you an' Bumpus both, but I guess we're overstayin' th' landlady's welcome," Banny says, trying to calm Jess's indignation much as she is attempting to calm Alicia's suspicions.
"'Welcome,'" Jess snorts. "Aye, she serves up a heaping helping of hospitality, don't she?" Nevertheless, she tugs Bumpus back toward the door and the corridor.