”Good point. Miss Chammie! Can you bring me a double coffee up to the room of the guy that was never officially here?” she asks, lingering on the steps a moment before hustling to catch up with the rest.
”Half-orc girlfriend to the guy in charge of protecting the town from full-orcs? I can see why some might disapprove. I don’t agree, but I get where they’re coming from,” she says with a shrug as she slips in behind the probably-less-sleepy folk.
”Wonder if that window was always cracked?” ponders Thyste as she walks in, nostrils twitching as she looks around the room, sniffing loudly.
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You find the exact same secret compartment, but this one has something inside!
Inside the secret compartment is a slip of dirty old parchment containing an unfinished letter. handout time
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Lidia reads the letter laboriously, her lips moving as she pushes her way through the words. Nevertheless, a prickling sensation runs along her spine at the sinister implications of what lies before her. She passes it off to the others to read.
"Well, I think that seals that this was murder, and that our mysterious visitor last night was the culprit." she says somberly. She crosses her arms and hunches her shoulders, as if cold.
"Odd that he'd write this letter then leave it sitting in a secret drawer like that. You don't suppose it's some sort of trick? To put us off the true scent?"
Thyste shrugs. ”Definitely suspicious. Anyone recognize that name? If Chammie doesn’t, we know it’s an out-of-towner. If the wounds weren’t where the Trunau folk generally take ‘em, we can double-confirm that, as well.”
"Ahhh. The mating impulse is strong in this one. Interesting what creatures will do to protect or win their mate. Still, we are in the dark concerning who the couple is. Keep tugging at strings, I guess. We can compare the handwriting to others and ask around about new mates."
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Ulretha plants Onnikka in the doorway, which keeps the other two hyenas from coming in at all.
Before he can search, Lidia finds the note. He reads it quickly before passing it on.
"At least now we know it was not suicide and we know who did it. We just have to find him."
"Now we can do your walking. Where do you want to go next? The forge or to see the body?"
”Well, my reason for wanting to check the body is gone. Or at least my main reason for wanting to. Let’s ask Chammie on the way out if she recognizes the name in the letter, then ask the smith if he’s got any information on that replacement knife.”
She slips out and heads for Cham’s counter, popping two copper pieces up on the counter if her coffee’s ready. ”Ever heard of a ‘Melira’?”
"I've no idea who Melira is. It's not anyone that lives here in Trunau." Cham says as she serves Thyste her coffee.
Thyste nods, drinking the coffee a bit in the fast side for how hot it is. ”Thanks, Miss Chammie. I’ll take this on the go and be back with the mug later,” she says, raising the mug in salute. ”To the Smith!”
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The smell of the coffee drifts over to Lidia and the thin young human sniffs it in enviously, but with a small sigh she keeps walking out of the inn. She's almost out the door when she stops, turns, and walks back to Cham.
"Sorry about the gnoll." she says. "I don't think he's quite housebroken, if you get my meaning. And thank you for your help. If you get any odd requests in the future though, let someone know ok? We'll try and be discrete."
Having said her piece, she leaves the Ramblehouse and follows the others, silently scanning the village as they walk through it, though she's too distracted by her own thoughts to pay much attention. "He's around here somewhere. He might even be watching us now." she thinks, frowning. What had she gotten herself wrapped up in? Should have told that fool to shove his militia job and left town last night. If she hadn't needed the coin...
Little ben rubs his chin in thought. It has already grown a stubble since the morning shave and he wonders, not for the first time, why he even bothers.
"Well, I still think viewing the body might be useful. For one, I'd like to see if it looks like a hopeknife suicide with the cuts in all the right places. Don't know if it will mean anything, but it's another string to pull. For now... to the smith it is."
Ben's ground eating strides are impressive, sending up plumes of dust as he goes. The late Rodrik's estimation of his stealth skills was very accurate. His companion, Little Buddy, in contrast, seems to move in short quick bursts of excitement. Occasionally the small dinosaur moves a bit to close to the hyena pack, almost as if testing them, before darting away.
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"I'll be back," Ulretha tells Cham cryptically before leaving the Ramble House.
He lags at the back of the group most of the time but will, occasionally scurry to catch up if the falls too far behind. He's constantly watching the ordinary citizens of Trunau as if awaiting an attack.
His pack react to Little Buddy in a variety of ways. Onnikka largely ignores the creature. She only snaps at him with no warning snarl or yap when he actually gets close enough that she might be able to get some flesh if she's lucky.
The middle male snaps and snarls every time he gets close, jogging stiff legged at him, especially if he gets close to Ulretha or Onnikka, but he doesn't pursue.
The bottom male snaps and snarls and even chases the dinosaur, only backing off when Little Buddy gets near Little Ben or when Ulretha absently and disgustedly chides him.
Little Buddy is enjoying this game considerably and, realizing that he is a lot faster than the hyena, leads his poor victim on many a chase.
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Ulretha is right to constantly be on the lookout for attack because shortly after you leave the Ramblehouse and begin heading to the smith, you hear the snarling of wolves and realize you've walked into some sort of ambush as humans brandishing weapons charge at you from behind the wolves and from the side!
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben
Human 3
Lidia
Enemies
Ulretha
Thyste's tail sticks straight out, ears tucking back against her head and she grits her teeth as a pack of wolves greets them. She sticks her doru into the ground, grabs her bow from over her shoulder, and tosses it above the nearest market stall.
Time to get out of biting range!
She bounds right off her heel, swinging and looping her way up. As she reaches the top, she doesn't bother to stand all the way up, snatching her bow as it falls back down and swiftly nocking a blunted arrow into it.
She barely even looks before there's a sharp twang!
As soon as the arrow's out of her bow, she raises her string hand expectantly, as if to catch something...
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A small vial gets knocked out of yellow's belt loop and spins through the air, right into the open hand of Thyste. You've no idea whats in the vial, but, well, you've got it and that sure was cool.
"Hey, that girl is stealing from us!" yells yellow.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben
Human 3
Lidia
Enemies
Ulretha
Your new mysterious ally?
With a rumble of outrage, Ben rushes up to green and puts the hurt on him.
His MASSIVE great axe makes a lazy arc through the air. Though slow, there is a heck of a lot of blade to avoid and the man is unable to dodge it.
Calling Little Buddy to his side, he sics the beast on another one of the humans . Little Buddies attacks are a direct contrast to Little Ben's, quick, darting, and far less lethal.
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Little Ben swings his greataxe of undetermined size and flattens one of the enemies to the ground. His raptor claws at another and injures them, but not grievously.
Orange steps towards Little Ben while creating a blade made entirely of water.
plus DC 11 fort save vs poison.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben, -4hp, DC 11 fort vs poison
Human 3
Lidia
Enemies, green human -2hp
Ulretha
Your new mysterious ally?
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Lidia just barely hits the wolf that wasn't quite ready to react yet. Her arrows sticks into it's shoulder, but it doesn't seem to be that fazed. You can intuitively tell something is wrong with these wolves.
You get little time to think about this fact before the wolves come rushing at the group. Seeing evenly sized enemies, the wolves try to take down the smaller pack of heynas from Ulretha.
+0 each
-1 each
+0 each
+0 each
-1 each
+0 each
If any of those actually hit vs flatfooted, your heynas need fort saves vs disease, DC 10
Two of the humans swing their liquid blades at Little Ben's raptor.
But both miss.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben, -4hp
Human 3
Lidia
Enemies, green human -2hp, purple wolf -5hp
Ulretha
Your new mysterious ally?
A black bird flies above the battlefield, letting out a loud and angry caw. On the street below, a young woman with Tian features runs after it, stopping short when she sees the battlefield below. The raven returns and lands on her shoulder. "I see," she sighs. "I suppose you want me to help."
"SCRAWK, help the weirdos, help the weirdos, SCRAWK!" the raven croons loudly. The woman sighs.
"The things I do for magic," she mutters, waving her hand at one of the assassins.
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"I knew it!" Ulretha snarls as the canines rush the felines (look it up!)
He's been expecting the people of this city to turn on him from the beginning.
He unlimbers his flail and steps up, smashing one of the wolves (purple) with the weapon. Since he doesn't have a chance to draw his shield, too, he swings it with both hands.
The hyena's lay their ears back at the oncoming wolves but are not quick enough to strike before being attacked.
Two of the wolves manage to land bites on the bottom male (solid line) though don't do any real damage (I think because of the -1 to damage.) They do manage to knock him off his feet.
The one wolf attacking the middle male (dashed line) isn't quite able to sink his teeth into him.
Both of the wolves attacking Onnikka (dotted line) manage to bite her and deliver some real damage but don't manage to knock her off her feet.
The male knocked off his feet (solid line) still attacks one of his assailants (red), but from the ground.
The male who was missed entirely (dotted line) launches itself savagely at the one that attacked him (green.)
Onnikka studies her opponents for a moment, then with calculated cruelty lashes out with her sharp fangs.
"Hey, that girl is stealing from us!" yells yellow.
"It's a lesser crime than whatever you think you're doing!"
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"Yes! Help the weirdos!!!" yells Thyste, hopping and waving her next, pointier arrow in the air. Seeing them on their way, she turns her attention back to the battle.
With a quick twang, she sends an arrow flying at the human with a pouch on his hip...
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The orange human stands around as the chaos happens around her.
Both male heyna's miss, but the female bites deeply into one of the wolves.
Ulretha swings his flail and knocks out the purple wolf.
Thyste fires her bow and suddenly has a pouch in her hand. She is quickly building quite the collection of stolen objects.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben, -4hp
Human 3
Lidia
Enemies, green human -2hp, green wolf -7, orange human dazed
Ulretha, sold line heyna 2NL and prone, dotted line -3hp, dashed line
Your new mysterious ally?
Ben holds his position and takes another lazy swing at the man in front of him but only manages to damage the pavilion, his height proving to be a disadvantage under the circumstances.
Rather unfriendly fellows. Reminds me of a few orcs I've met. Wonder what their problem is?
Little Buddy manages to look a little better as he continues to scratch and bite at the man he was told to attack.
"Care to tell us why you are being so unfriendly? I like to talk while I fight, don't you? Go ahead, get it off your chest."
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"We don't need to tell you anything." replies orange after the daze effect wears off.
Little Buddy hits with its bite and one of its talons and its just enough to knock out its prey.
The wolves fight back against the Heyna's, trusting in their superior numbers and in their haze of disease.
2 saves for red vs disease, DC 10
One of the woman's liquid blade dissapates as it crashes into Little Buddy's leathery hide, but the other blade strikes Little Ben right in an important artery.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste
Little Ben, -13hp
Lidia
Enemies, green human -2hp, green wolf -7, orange human dazed
Ulretha, red heyna 3NL/-3hp and prone, orange -3hp, green
Victoria
"Ouch! That puny knife sure hurts. Just for that I think I'll bleed all over you." Ben actually laughs at his own bad joke even as he does exactly what he said he'd do as his blood travels down the haft of the axe to be sprayed in a wide arc.
"You do know that the blade cuts both ways, don't you." Again another lazy blow floats through the air and into Orange as Ben chuckles and directs his little buddy to also attack him (or Yellow if Orange goes down).
holds her bow out before herself horizontally,
"Tabling your bow!?" cries Thyste from her perch, tut-tutting at the human ranger. "I don't think the judges will be fond of that!"
She bows to an imaginary panel before spinning an arrow onto the string, pulling it back:
TWANG!
THGK
"Speaking of judges-- where are the guards? Or the militia, I guess?"
The weakest member of the pack (red) continues to fight from the ground, actually rolling onto his back and pushing with his front paws as he snaps and snarls at the wolves who are slowly nipping him to pieces.
The middle male (orange) comes to the aid of his brother, attacking the yellow wolf.
Onnikka's snarl almost seems to be a smile of impending triumph as she launches herself at the blue wolf.
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Ulretha scoffs disdainfully at Onnikka's failure then yips out approval for the impressive strike of the bottom of the pack. He steps up to maneuver behind their opponents. He draws his shield for extra protection in the process swinging his flail with only one hand.
"Don't you know?" he responds to Thyste's question. "We ARE the militia."
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"Tabling your bow!?" cries Thyste from her perch, tut-tutting at the human ranger. "I don't think the judges will be fond of that!"
"I can't shoot any other way when I'm moving left!" answers Lidia defensively. "I hit didn't I?"
In truth, Lidia seems to be having a hard time focusing on the wolves attacking them, her eyes constantly being drawn to a pack of giggling yipping hyenas fighting on 'her side', a fox-halfling somehow using a bow like a fishing line to reel in the property of people dozens of feet away, and a giant half-orc swinging an awe the size of a small tree.
"Desna's garter, am *I* the normal one?" she thinks.
The new challenger continues moving into the fray, pointing at the next human in line. "Is now really the time for banter about bow technique!?"
Disregarding Lidia's perfectly valid point, she turns to the stranger (not that she's particularly familiar with the rest of them, admittedly).
"Is now really the time for banter about bow technique!?"
"What better time than this! Look-- I'm two-foot-six on my tiptoes and I'm using a bow that's small for me! I'm lucky if my draw length is a foot and a half! But she's using a longbow that's taller than me and she's wasting it! Sure,heraccuracyisgreat,butherarrowswouldbediggingdeeperandshewouldn'tbeskinningherarm--youareweari ngbracers,right?--ifshewouldsettleforjustanglingherbowinsteadofholdingitats uchananglethatshecan'tpullthestringtofulldraw,andifyouaskmethat'sjustasmuch acrimeaswhatevertheseguysaredoingItellyahwat, and--"
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Little Ben once again knocks out one of the female humans trying to stab him with water blades. His Little Buddy gravely wounds another, but doesn't quite knock her out.
Lidia's expert marksmenship knocks out one of the wolves, even though the judges (Thyste) give her less points for tabling her bow.
Speaking of Thyste, she finally starts shooting for pain and hits the "feathered bad guy".
Ulretha's pack retaliates in kind to the wolves, easily knocking out more of them. Ulretha proves to be too busy handling his pack to aim his own attack accurately in the swirl of heyna on dog dogpiles.
Victoria dazes one of the human's and just in time too.
As the battle begins to die down, you hear the clanking of armor and weapons as Trunau's militia come running on the scene. "What's going on here!?"
The one non-dazed and non-knocked out human turns tail and begins to run away. Ulretha's pack tear into the remaining wolf while the militiamen stand around, extremely confused.
Combat Over! Status:
Thyste
Little Ben, -13hp
Lidia
Ulretha, red heyna 3NL/-3hp and prone, orange -3hp, green
Victoria
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"Official Trunau militia business," Ulretha answers the question of the OTHER militia members as they approach.
He gives one of the downed wolves a kick. "These dogs and their masters ambushed us. We were just about to start questioning them...if any of them are still alive when you arrived."
He pushes one of the males away from the canine carcasses with a foot, sending it skidding across the cobblestones a few feet.
He wouldn't care, normally, but some "civilized" people got squeamish when you started eating the spoils of battle. Besides, there was something off about those wolves and he didn't want his hyena's catching it.
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As the militia arrives, Lidia quickly puts her bow away and takes a few steps back, like she's about to make a break for it herself. But she fights the urge and stays. She spots the person with the strange waterblade holding their head in apparent distress and yells out to Ben.
"Hey, grab her, will ya big guy? Before she bolts too. Maybe we can get some answers."
Finally she returns her attention to the downed wolves. She frowns. Normally she liked wolves. And something was off about these creatures. They acted... sick or something.
She moves up to a couple of the prone canines and kneels for a closer look, keeping an eye on the 'trained' hyenas just in case.
, to tell who's still alive and who's bleeding out and the like.
"Grab her? That's like grabbing a wasp. If she runs, just shoot her in the leg. Like she's going to outrun Little Buddy and that pack anyway. Oh, yeah, Little Buddy - Defend!"
Just in time Ben gives his animal companion the order to stand down. Little Buddy takes his job very seriously and was about to tear a new one in the only standing target.
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You make sure to grab the one standing around, dazed from Victoria's magic. The rest of the female humans that attacked you are alive, although in various states of bleeding out. The militia help treat the wounds enough to keep the injured alive before tying them up. "Well, you're still standing and they aren't. Well have to ask Halgra what to do about these thugs."
Thyste checks the vial she stole.
DC 11
This is small centipede poison
DC 10
The animals weren’t rabid as they initially seemed, but had in fact been poisoned. This poison developed into a full-blown disease (don't ask me how) that causes alchemical hemophilia.
Ben examines the downed wolves, wondering why they were acting so strangely.
"Poor things were poisoned by some nightmare of an alchemists creation that seems to have diseased them. Not sure how they controlled them. Pets maybe? Nasty thing to do to your pets though. These people should be... tossed to the wolves."
After the examination Ben casts a CLW on himself.