Nico goes sprinting off after the person they just bit, sliding around the corners and bounding up to the person.
Garif goes over to where Phinellippa is and opens the window the rest of the way for her.
The mystery man isn’t liking his position.
He tumbles out of Nico’s reach, and turns towards the window.
He then attempts to dive through the window that Garif has just opened, past both Phinellippa and Garif!
He continues running towards the front entrance!
Bolded may act.
Round 3:
Mystery Man -15
Rees -9
Shieara
Phinellippa
Garif
Nico
Daimar
Kleines
“Aargh! My eyes! What did you do to me, [REDACTED]!” the mystery man shouts as he drops his bloody dagger and puts his hands up to his eyes.
Bolded may act.
Round 3:
Mystery Man -15 blinded until round 5, stunned until round 6
Rees -9
Shieara
Phinellippa
Garif
Nico
Daimar
Kleines
Nico pursues the annoyingly dexterous foe through the window, catching up to him at the base of the stairs and trying to bite him!
Garif has Nico follow the man through the window and gives his cat some divine guidance.
Nico jumps through the window, goes skidding around the corner, and tries to bite the man. Unfortunately there is a post at the end of the stairs that gets in the way!
Kleines tries to be reasonable with the fleeing culprit, but Damiar has had enough and threatens him. The threats do cause him to pause.
It is now getting very crowded at the base of the stairs.
Bolded may act.
Round 3:
Mystery Man -15 blinded until round 5, stunned until round 6, demoralized until round 5
Rees -9
Shieara
Phinellippa
Garif
Nico
Daimar
Kleines
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Rees creases his brow in frustration as the man disappears through the window, then glances back at Shieara and meets her gaze, rolling his eyes ever so slightly, as if to say, Well, that did a lot of good... he's gone. Right through the window -- can you believe it? Just our luck: we find the guy who's likely behind all this, and he tries to steal my kidney and then runs off! I suppose we ought to pursue him... or maybe wait for him.
Pausing for a moment, the tall elf tips his head momentarily toward the side of the house closest to Shieara, and then toward the corner nearest him. Grabbing an arrow from his quiver, he proceeds to watch for the man to attempt escape this way.
Rees uses his eyebrow trick to attempt to silently communicate with Shieara, then takes up position and waits for a target to shoot.
Bolded may act.
Round 3:
Mystery Man -15 blinded until round 5, stunned until round 6, demoralized until round 5
Rees -9
Shieara
Phinellippa
Garif
Nico
Daimar
Kleines
Click. Whirr.
Shiera goes in to the house and spears the Mystary Man.
"STOP! Stay right where you are!"
Shieara and Rees hear the noise of a gathering crowd to the east. Shieara doesn’t see anything as she runs back into the building.
Bringing her spear around, she expertly conks the man on the temple knocking him unconscious.
The man is unconscious. Kleines doesn't think it would take very much to bring him conscious again.
He starts heading up the stairs.
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"Good work, Shieara! He was a tough fellow to hit!" Garif exclaims, before glancing at Phinellippa. "Though I guess it helped that Phin made him blind and unable to move. Anyway, great work all around."
He kneels down by the slippery foe and begins taking away his weapons, then pulls out a wand, ready to heal the man back to consciousness once everyone else is ready.
Damiar binds the man as Garif searches him and removes any weapons or suspicious materials.
He actually has quite the stash of materials on him. Two different potions, three smoke sticks, one masterwork and four normal daggers, a feather token, nightdrops, thieves tools, a hooded lantern with oil, writing supplies and cold Iron weapon blanch.
Meanwhile, Kleines is searching the second floor. He doesn’t find anyone or anything of interest up there.
Once everyone is ready, Garif touches the man with his wand.
He wakes up, looking around. He has that look of someone trying to figure out what to do next. He seems to listen for a moment.
He smiles up at Garif and whispers “Sounds like Torvil has done his part. This should still work!”
Then he starts screaming at the top of his lungs “”
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Kleines comes back downstairs. "What is going on down here?" Hearing the man, and seeing the wand in Garif's hand, he goes to the door."No one's getting murdered, no thanks to you. And Garif just healed you, so pipe down! Who are you talking to, anyway?" With that, he opens the door and looks outside.
As Kleines opens the door, the man shouts “”
Kleines sees a large crowd down the path. At the front of the crowd are two faces he recognizes — Tobias and Ekira. Behind them are several townsfolk, some of them waving pitchforks!
Ekira spots Kleines in the door and can be heard shouting “There they are! Quickly, we must capture these murderers!” The sherif says something, but you can’t make it out over the other noise.
The mystery man has an even wider grin when he hears that. “This is going to be great!”
Ekira starts forward, shouting “We must take them now!”
The sherif hold up his hand and commands her “Stop!”
Looking towards Kleines, he says “Why don’t all of you folks come out here? Take it slow, I don’t want someone overreacting” as he says this he is staring at Ekira “or thinking you are trying to hide anything.”
He waves Kleines forward, saying “I am going to what to hear both sides of what is going on.”
Ekira seems her normal angry self. The villagers seem agitated and unsure what to do. Only the sherif seems calm and collected.
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"Friends, please bring that gentleman out here and hand him over to the sheriff." Kleines walks forward out of the doorway. "Sheriff, this man attacked us. We have bound him for our safety, after we subdued him, but we have also healed some of his wounds. We leave it to your judgement whether he should be unbound."
The sherif has you bring out your prisoner and has all of you gather in the town square. You’ve got villagers all around listening in and can hear a few grumbles from some of them.
Tobias asks the man “Who are you?”
He straightens himself to his full height, a little over six foot tall at a guess, and announces “I’m Dalton Krunne, and was running in fear from these murderers!” waving in the group’s general direction.
At this Ekira exclaims “See! I told you they were guilty!”
The sherif glares at Ekira for a moment, then turns to Dalton and shakes his head while saying “We will get to that, and you’ll have your opportunity to speak. For now all I want is your name.”
Then to Ekira, he says “Do not interrupt like that again. I want to keep this nice and orderly.” The two have a short staring match.
Turning to your group, he then says “Now I think I’ve met all of you, but just for the sake of the townsfolk, why don’t you introduce yourselves. Don’t go jumping ahead trying to explain things, just tell us who you are.”
Dalton matches the description that Iovo got from the dwarf of the man that had been asking about the group.
About half the crowd looks up when they hear CoCo chime in. Ekira seems to concentrate on CoCo for a few seconds.
There is a surprised murmur from the crowd when Damiar mentions being a Pathfinder.
Ekira gets a very determined expression on her face, the sort a paladin might get on finding a disguised demon in their midst.
The sherif doesn’t look the least bit surprised at her statement.
The drunk in the corner is still trying to figure out where the voice from above came from.
I consider it part of normal Paladin training to know that most people have to be fairly strong (more than 4HD) in order to be detectable. See Detect Evil spell description for all the details.
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"An' I'm Shieara Enric, servant of th' Lucky Drunk," Shieara adds, giving her head a jerk to indicate the holy symbol hanging around her neck. "Like my friend Damiar said, we're here t' look into this whole mess...an' either clear th' Pathfinder name or confirm that th' other agents really did do th' deed."
The drunk in the corner takes notice of Shieara, raising his tankard in salute.
There are more murmurs from the crowd when Shieara mentions your mission included the possibility they were guilty. The sherif also quirks an eyebrow at this news.
Ekira seems even more determined in her purpose.
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Rees peers around the building at the commotion out front, then sighs and lowers his bow -- though he keeps a watchful eye on the prisoner, ready to shoot first if the man attempts escape.
Never taking his eyes from the true murderer, the tall elf grimaces as his turn comes to 'introduce himself'. These lawless savages have already decided we are guilty -- what is the use of speaking with them further? If a single one of them were a true Elder, he would know we are innocent.
"You are all fools." He begins quietly, before pausing and amending, "... err, if you truly believe we are the murderers here. I am Rees."
The crowd doesn’t react much to Garif’s introduction, but there is a chorus of mutters when Rees calls everyone a fool.
Tobias clears his throat, then says “Alright, best we get this hearing started.”
“Anyone with a weapon out, I would appreciate it if you sheath it.” Looking to the citizens with pitchforks, he adds “No pointing farming tools at people either!”
The people with the pitchforks slowly lower them, then move to holding them with only one hand at their side.
At this point, Dalton asks “Can someone take these ropes off me? I’m the victim here, not the accused!”
The sherif frowns a moment, then says “You aren’t gagged, so the bindings don’t affect your ability to speak.”
“Think I would rather you stay like that for the moment, until we have a better idea of what is happening.”
At that point, Ekira speaks up. “It is pretty obvious these Pathfinders...” she says it as if it were a curse and then spits to the side. “...are up to more of their nefarious activities.”
The sherif looks at her and says “Really? Without even hearing any evidence you are so eager to convict them?”
Shaking his head, he raises his voice a little and says “This is how it is going to be.”
“Each group will have a chance to speak. No interruptions! After they have each said their piece, we will do questions if need be.”
“If as part of their evidence they want a witness to speak, they can call for that person to do so. That person says what they know and then we get back to the group giving evidence.”
“We are going to keep this trial nice and orderly.”
The sherif pauses a moment.
Looking around, he then asks “Any questions?”
Ekira immediately says “Would it be allowed for me to bring up a spell to force people to tell the truth?”
The sherif scratches his chin a bit, then says “If one side or the other requests it, that would be fine, I don’t want anyone trying to cast anything without first stating what they are doing and getting my approval.”
The sherif nods to Dalton. “Tell us what you know.”
Dalton stands proud and starts his speech.
“I saw the murder of the young man the night before. I’m sure it was because of that they” nodding in your general direction “came for me. I will never forget the look of shock and terror the victim had as the dwarf’s dagger took his life!”
“They somehow tracked me to that abandoned building and attempted to silence me. Just barged into the building and started searching it! When they found me, they immediately began attacking!”
“Look at all my injuries! The big cat bit me and that woman tried to crack my skull!” nodding toward Shieara. “The gnome was the worst, using her magics on me!”
“After beating me down they proceeded to strip me of several of my possessions as well!”
“Fortunately I was able to cry out for help, which made that one” nodding towards Kleines “check outside. I gather that is when you saw them.”
“They are the ones you should hang for the murders! Murder, theft, and probably other things too!”
The crowd seems impressed by his story and Ekira looks overjoyed by the testimony.
The sherif checks that Dalton is done, then looks to your group.
“Well, it is your turn to speak.”
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Turning to Ekira, Kleines nods. "If you have magic that guarantees true speaking, then I welcome it. My oath to the Master of Masters, as well as my training by your Iomadaean brethren at the Tempering Hall" another nod to Ekira, "do not permit me to tell anything but the truth. I do wish, however, that you had cast it before this man spoke, for what he said bore little relation to the truth.
"We came to this house tonight because we received a letter claiming to be from someone trapped within. It bore the same handwriting as the written testimony you were given, sheriff, as well as the letter that was sent to the Pathfinder Society that originally drew the accused to Dawnton." Kleines turns to his allies and asks whoever has it to present the letter. "We suspected a ruse but came anyway. What if it wasn't a trap? We couldn't ignore a plea for help if there was a chance it was real. If it was a trap, it was still our best opportunity to find the truth. When we arrived, we were ambushed by this man. I believe he wished to kill us and plant evidence against us, though I do not know for certain what his plan was. We subdued him, planning to bring him to the sheriff for questioning, which brings us to the here-and-now." Kleines bows, and steps back.
Ekira looks to the sherif, who gives a nod.
She then steps around Damiar to the middle of your group and takes out a scroll to cast a spell.
Dalton smiles and without fear steps into the area of the spell.
——
The sherif takes out the letter he received and compares it to the two letters your group has. He then passes all three to Ekira who also looks.
The sheriff announces “They look like the same handwriting to me.”
Ekira nods but adds “Although they look the same, a skilled forger could have copied the handwriting if they saw your letter first!”
The sheriff replies “Tough to do, especially since I kept this one with me.”
He then looks to Kleines and asks “Did you or any of your compatriots write any of these three letters?”
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Knowing he is not the most persuasive speaker of the party, Garif keeps his contributions to a minimum. ”We did not write the letters, nor commit any murders. That dagger was planted on me, and I believe the one found at the earlier murder was planted as well. I don’t know why, but someone is trying to frame the Pathfinders for these crimes, and either the inquisitor is in on that, or she has been duped as well.“
He pauses, considering a moment whether to speak further, then adds, ”...and I saw a mysterious stork, which seemed to be watching us.“
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"That's right," Shieara nods, also unafraid of being subject to Ekira's magics. "An' don't forget there's been other clues found, like that button out at th' farm - it sure didn't match anythin' th' other Pathfinders were wearin' at th' time or had on 'em. It had to have come from someone else - either th' real murderer or a witness that ain't stepped forward."
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