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The time is now a little after noon.
Rodrik’s fiancee, Brinya Kelver, occupies humble rooms in a boarding house just northwest of the Commons (area D). When you arrive, you catch her in an unenviable state, her face wracked with grief and stained by hours of tears. She composes herself as best she can when she sees you, but breaks into sobs periodically throughout the conversation.
"Ye...yes...can I help you?" she says between sniffles.
"My story? Well, I was born here but recruited by a druid. He, too, is part orc, as am I, though I am only 1/4 orc. A giant of a man with an axe like mine. He saw a kindred spirit in me and took me under his branch. He is tasked with protecting nature from the orc and goblinoids to the north and west. As his assistant I have been sent to roam the area and collect information. I am uniquely suited to the job due to my lineage. But I have of late grown bored of this task and the loneliness of all that travelling and am looking for a more stable position. I am not well suited to the isolation from human society. Little Ben is just a nickname I picked up as a child, an ironic twist on my size."
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"Ye...yes...can I help you?" she says between sniffles.
Lidia crosses her arms uncomfortably as the bereaved woman appears at the door, and suddenly becomes very interested in the ground. It felt too much like intruding. Her questions dry up on her tongue and she leaves it to the others to open things up.
Sal looks at Ben and is a little moved.
”Thank you for sharing this story with us! It will be a pleasure to enjoy life with you!“
Brinya is obviously very sad and Sal feels her pain. She introduces herself and explains how Rodrik saved her life and that she wants to help.
”We are very sorry to disturb you in your current grief! And we also understand if you cannot speak with us at the moment! At the same time we have received information that you might have something that could help us to solve the mystery of Rodrik’s death... “
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Lidia looks gratefully toward the gnome, then checks the effect on Brinya.
On the one hand, she felt she wanted to place a comforting hand on this woman’s arm, and say soothing words to relieve her pain. That was instinct. But she had no right to do so. And it felt dishonest in a way. If not for the investigation, they wouldn’t even be here. Plus it must be overwhelming to her, just coming to the door to see a horde of strange people and animals. And certainly unwelcome.
She couldn’t even apologize. Even that felt too familiar.
She backs away from the door and slinks off to wait out of sight. She keeps her eyes peeled for outside attention to their activities.
Ben begins the encounter keeping Little Buddy back, who wants desperately to sniff and lick the new person. NOT appropriate at the moment. Fortunately the excitable fellow learned the Stay trick, unfortunately it was probably the hardest trick for him to learn and it has been an exciting day for the little beast. so it takes a few minutes and more than a few treats to reinforce the training before he joins in on the conversation.
While 'Sal' is encouraging the woman, Ben tries to get a good look at her place, looking for potential evidence or anything that might spark a useful question.
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Knowledge Local - any significance to white swords or crosses?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
A knowledge religion check might reveal some information. Although your local knowledge makes you realize you've seen those markings before around town. They are at barterstones, commons, hopespring, sanctuary, and south tower. You've heard that Sergeant Omast Frum is trying to remove them with little luck.
Little Ben doesn't find anything of interest.
With mention of Rodrick's death, Brinya bursts into more tears for a few moments before struggling to speak, "We had been seeing each other for months... Rodrik finally proposed to me using his mother’s ring...but, but... Even once we were engaged, Rodrik was careful to keep the relationship hidden... from... his father... who wouldn’t approve."
"I didn't like it, but I understood the need for Rodrick's privacy...we still fought about it some times...and I wish we hadn't now!... Rodrik became busy with some sort of investigation... all he told me was that it was... 'his greatest work'. Rodrik’s father did find out about us though..., and refused to talk to his son for proposing to a...to a... 'filthy half-orc'!"
Salaamati is truly saddened by the prejudice this couple faced.
”I am truly sorry for all the hardship that you had to endure as a couple! Our relationships are sacred as it is a very important part of life and it is essential that we are able to embrace our fate!“
She then thinks about the journal.
”Can you please take a look at this journal of your fiance and see if there is anything that resonates with you? Anything that could help us?“
Thyste is pleased to no longer be the only one with any real people-sense, and quietly glances over the widow's house and stuff.
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Sitting behind a rain barrel, Lidia occupied herself for a few minutes with cleaning the blood off an arrow she had salvaged from one of the poisoned wolves. The wood was stained a bit. She spit on it, then rubbed it vigorously with a bit of her sleeve, then held it up to her eye to make sure it was still straight and that the fletching was still true.
That done, she pulled out a little tin can that she'd filled with some bear grease she'd rendered down a few months ago. She sniffed it cautiously. It was just starting to turn, but it would still be decently effective. She plunked out a dollop, rubbed it across her palms, then spread it all over her face, neck and arms, and ran her fingers through her long hair to deliver the rest of the grease to the dark strands and get it off her hands. She finished by wiping her hands on her boots. She did this with the calm automation of a daily ablution.
It was at this point that she noticed a little inchworm caterpillar laboriously climbing the side of the water barrel with the blind furious intent that such creatures always seemed to have. She intercepted it with a finger and allowed it to march up and down her hands for a few minutes. For the first time that day, a small distracted smile settled onto her lips. She let it walk down a finger and onto the tip of her nose, and let it inch its way up her greasy nose. It diverted to walk over her right eye, and she indulgently closed her eye to let it, feeling it scuffing lightly over her eyelid, then crawling onto her cheek. There it sent its front quarters waving and dancing out over the abyss, looking for some new surface to grab onto. She opened her eye again, and looked down at the little green creature, waving about in confusion, perhaps even aware of the giant eye watching it from an inch away. She offered her finger to it again, then lifted it to the top of the barrel, where it soon was lost to her sight.
She looked up at the sky, judging the time of day and the feel of the air. Her stomach gurgled, still turning over the splash of whiskey rolling around in there, and looking vainly for something more solid. She pounded her thin belly a couple times with a fist, as if admonishing it to be patient, but kept looking up at the sky.
"White swords..." she mutters to herself. "What are they marking?"
"It would have been a hard marriage, I'm afraid. Prejudices can be very difficult to deal with. I should know. My father is a half-orc and my mother human. They used to live here in town but moved away, partly because of the prejudices. It's part of the reason I left home to become a druid. It wasn't easy for me either. They live out east a few miles away on a farm keeping pretty much to themselves. They are happy, but life has not been easy. Anyway, I'm sorry for your loss, but have you any idea who might have wanted him dead?"
Brinya does better with the journal, having something to distract her from her grief. "I don't think I can make more out of this than you. It sounds like he knew something was happening at the plague house, but I don't know what or if its connected." she says as she hugs the journal, "Do you mind if I keep this? Unless you think you still need it to solve his...passing."
Sal is a little disappointed.
”Thank you for having the courage to look through this journal! Let me assure you that we will return this to you after our investigation! But at the moment I believe that it makes more sense for us to keep it and review some of your beloved Rodrik’s notes when we find more evidence!“
Sal is ready to leave.
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Once the others begin to leave Brinya’s home, Lidia reappears, looking a trifle subdued, perhaps even guilty. She tries to compensate with a sort of forced chattiness.
”Off to this Plague House then? Hopefully it’s just a name. After we finish there, there’s another lead we could follow up on. That old half-orc seer mentioned white crosses or swords appearing in his visions. I happened to hear a militia man talking about the same thing last night; a sergeant who’s been given the job of erasing white crossed sword emblems at various places around town. The spots might be significant—meeting places or something.”
Salaamati nods.
”Yes! I follow you!“
Ben looks impressed by Lidia's info gathering.
"Good work Lidia! Perhaps later we could set up a watch and see if we can catch some of these vandals for questioning. For now, I agree that this Plague House should be our next stop."
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"Well, that was a waste of time," Ulretha snarls to no one in particular as the group makes its way out of town.
"If we're not even going to torture people just because they're already crying, I don't know how any of you expect to get to the bottom of all this. Nothing convinces someone to tell the truth like watching a couple of their fingers get eaten."
”Those marks could be targets,” she points out with a shrug. ”Though typically a Thief’s Mark will be a little more subtle.”
”Not that I would know.”
Thyste is pleased to be outside of the widow’s house, although heading to the Plague House isn’t a massive improvement. She shuffles along at a quick pace, though her soles only just barely leave the ground.
When Lidia drops back to keep pace with her, she smiles. The woman is pretty in a sleeps-in-the-mud sort of way, and Thyste is never one to turn down a pretty lady’s questions.
Admittedly, it’s not exactly a high bar.
She wasn’t expecting this line of questioning, though.
”Kaer Maga is... hmm. It’s hard to describe, really. They basically took an old fortress and started building houses on it, as far as I can tell. It’s great if you’re not into laws that keep you from, say, owning a particular item... or, uh, person.”
She bites her lip with conical teeth. ”Being something of a curiosity means that I make sure I’m near the Freemen at all times and sleep in the Bottoms. There’s a reason I don’t live there full-time.”
”You’d think that they’d mark me off as a bad asset after the first guy was found with a spearhead splitting his tongue from the back, but, y’know, there’s always a thicker set of manacles apparently.”
"Well, that was a waste of time," Ulretha snarls to no one in particular as the group makes its way out of town.
"If we're not even going to torture people just because they're already crying, I don't know how any of you expect to get to the bottom of all this. Nothing convinces someone to tell the truth like watching a couple of their fingers get eaten."
"And that, right there, is why you are not allowed to do the questioning. What part of jail or hanging don't you understand?"
Normally a very patient fellwo, Ben sighs with exasperation. For Ben it is not the lack of civilization that bothers him, or the ruthlessness evident in his suggestion, but the fact that he is so inflexible that he cannot understand that cultural mores are variable and dangerous.
"Let me try this again. You are not with a pack of gnolls right now, you are with a pack of humans, half-orcs, and other so-called civilized races. Whether you think their mores are sensible, you need to honor their rules in situations like this or you... will... end... up... DEAD. And that means no torturing for a while."
Ugh. And it probably does not stop at torturing. How can I relate to him the extensive list or dos and don'ts learned during an entire lifetime! And unfortunately I suspect I am the one most likely to be able to understand his animalistic upbringing.
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”Kaer Maga is... hmm. It’s hard to describe, really. They basically took an old fortress and started building houses on it, as far as I can tell. It’s great if you’re not into laws that keep you from, say, owning a particular item... or, uh, person.”
She bites her lip with conical teeth. ”Being something of a curiosity means that I make sure I’m near the Freemen at all times and sleep in the Bottoms. There’s a reason I don’t live there full-time.”
”You’d think that they’d mark me off as a bad asset after the first guy was found with a spearhead splitting his tongue from the back, but, y’know, there’s always a thicker set of manacles apparently.”
This answer seems to puzzle Lidia. She frowns and knits her eyebrows, plodding mentally through these statements one at a time. After some moments, she moves closer to Thyste, speaking quite quietly now.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand. Do you mean... are you saying you were a slave?"
She immediately grimaces and looks down at her feet.
"I'm sorry, that was rude. You don't have to ... I'm sorry."
Sal listens to the soul striptease and the lecture and feels that Ben and Lidia already said what she would have wanted to confer.
”I am new and don’t want to intrude but I am really wondering how you guys came together as a group?! You don’t seem to be well acquainted!“ she says hesitantly.
Ben barks out a loud laugh at that.
"It wasn't by our choice. We happened to be in the right? wrong? place at the right time. We were visiting and the town needed competent warm bodies to deal with this thing. Apparently they thought we were competent."
This answer seems to puzzle Lidia. She frowns and knits her eyebrows, plodding mentally through these statements one at a time. After some moments, she moves closer to Thyste, speaking quite quietly now."I'm sorry, I don't think I understand. Do you mean... are you saying you were a slave?"
She immediately grimaces and looks down at her feet.
"I'm sorry, that was rude. You don't have to ... I'm sorry."
Thyste slows her pace and watches the rest of the group, letting them add to the distance before leaning in.
”Lidia... look at me. If I didn’t have the fox bits, I’d be a pretty Halfling. Now look at the fox bits—I don’t have a snout, I don’t have weird fox arms on a Halfling body. I’m not just a curiosity—I’m a prize.
But the good thing about so obviously belonging in a cage is that you get amateurs trying to cram you in a bag and selling you to people who have never had a slave before. Me? I’ve had one-night stands with slavery. Act docile and a little scared and the pretty elven man holding a leash for the first time will convince himself that you’d make a good house pet and that you can be left to roam the house.
No, calling me a slave is an insult to the ones who get [redacted] by it day-in and day-out for their entire lives because the people who clapped them in irons knew how to leave the body just broken enough to keep picking their crops or loading their cargo or what have you.
So I don’t need you to pity me. When I spend two days straight in a cage, I’m there by choice.”
”Kaer Maga can be a rough place. I am originally from Korvosa but lived in Kaer Maga for a while. Seeing undead roaming through town gave me a feeling of helplessness... I left for good... “
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Lidia listens to Thyste intently and keeps looking at her after Thyste stops speaking. She walks in silence for a while.
"Were you always... like this?" she asks finally, tentatively. She gestures vaguely to the ears and tail. "I mean... to be honest, I didn't know exactly, well, what you are."
She shakes her head. "You sound like you're resigned to spending your life being kidnapped and used and sold. If that's true... well, then I suppose I do pity you. Because that's awful. And if anybody tried to do that to you while I was around, they'd get a mouth full of bloody teeth."
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”Kaer Maga can be a rough place. I am originally from Korvosa but lived in Kaer Maga for a while. Seeing undead roaming through town gave me a feeling of helplessness... I left for good... “
Having been intent on her conversation with Thyste, Lidia actually does a double-take when Salaamati brings the topic back to Kaer Maga. She blinks in confusion at the gnome.
"Undead? Walking the streets?" she sputters in horror.
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Ulretha grins, as he pads along, not a particularly pleasant sight or reassuring expression on his face.
"Ah. I understand. We're going to wait until night then kidnap her and take her outside of town and torture her for answers so that no one knows. You are more clever than you appear," he says to Ben.
"We are not a group. We are people who were hired to do the same task but who aren't getting paid for it apparently. So, I guess we are whatever the name for a collection of fools is," he answers Salaamati's question.
Fortunately, the ladies in the group have fallen too far back for him to overhear their discussion or voice his opinion of slavery. He likely would be even more unwelcome in the group were he to state it back to back with his views on torture.
Flat snouts are so squeamish when it comes to the facts of life.
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It only takes a few minutes to travel to the plague house right outside Trunau's walls.
The Plague House’s front doors sit three feet above the ground. Charred wooden beams and ash are all that remains of a small porch and stairs that once led to the entrance. The small windows flanking either side of the doorframe are broken but a large stained glass window dominating the face of the building to the right remains in fine shape, and shows a varicolored image of Iomedae holding her sword aloft.
Climbing up the burnt landing to the front doors requires a successful DC 5 Climb check or a boost from an ally.
She shakes her head. "You sound like you're resigned to spending your life being kidnapped and used and sold. If that's true... well, then I suppose I do pity you. Because that's awful. And if anybody tried to do that to you while I was around, they'd get a mouth full of bloody teeth."
Thyste chuckles, shaking her head. "You missed a few context clues, girl, but I'm happy to know you'd help me out of a bind. Might need it if that gnoll ever figures out how he can bait me into a cage. I'm sure he's already pieced together that my ears and tail are worthless on their own."
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Thyste chuckles, shaking her head. "You missed a few context clues, girl, but I'm happy to know you'd help me out of a bind.
Lidia looks questioningly at Thyste as various meanings of this enigmatic answer roll around her mind. In the end, she just nods and lets the subject drop.
"Shouldn't be much farther." she mumbles.
Upon reaching the House, she taps her chin. "As gloomy as it's always been. What are the odds it falls on us as soon as we nudge a bit of timber?" she muses.
"Anyway, men first, I should think."
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Lidia will circle the building, looking for tracks and for other ways into the building.
[dice=Survival]1d20+6
[dice=Perception]1d20+7
There are multiple ways of entering the ruined building: through the front doors, the collapsed wall in the northwest, the open wall or the back door in the collapsed stairwell, and the hole in the northeast.
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There are multiple ways of entering the ruined building: through the front doors, the collapsed wall in the northwest, the open wall or the back door in the collapsed stairwell, and the hole in the northeast.
Lidia reappears after a few minutes of snooping around. She speaks in a low voice.
"There's a lot of broken walls around to the left on the north side of the building that could serve as another way in and out. There's a collapsed stairwell in the back that probably isn't too safe, but could also serve as another way in."
"I didn't see any tracks, but I may have missed something. Ulretha, can your hyenas pick up scent trails?"
"Ah. I understand. We're going to wait until night then kidnap her and take her outside of town and torture her for answers so that no one knows. You are more clever than you appear," he says to Ben.
Ben blows out an exasperated breath when the pack-man responds so cluelessly to his reprimand.Nothing for it but to just keep an eye on him or make sure he goes to jail alone.
"I didn't see any tracks, but I may have missed something. Ulretha, can your hyenas pick up scent trails?"
"Little Buddy has a good sense of smell, but he stinks as a tracker. I tried to train him but he keeps running off after squirrels and the like. Hopefully the pack is better at it. I am a fair tracker myself, though I do not have the advantage of some animals' keens sense of smell. In any case, I can do a check for poison."
Ben will be casting detect poison on every door they pass through, any dresser or chest they come across or anything suspicious looking. For the moment he looks for anything suspicious on the front door, including poison.
, to check out the front door.
”I am not that powerful but I will create a link to Lidia and Little Ben if you allow? It will heal your wounds in battle!“
Sal will try to detect magic!
In this as in all things, Onnikka takes the lead while the two males do their best to aid her.
She really does smell good.
”I am not that powerful but I will create a link to Lidia and Little Ben if you allow? It will heal your wounds in battle!“
"Why, that would be excellent, though Little Buddy does tend to get bear up a bit in combat so you may be getting more than you asked for."
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”I am not that powerful but I will create a link to Lidia and Little Ben if you allow? It will heal your wounds in battle!“
Lidia looks toward Salaamati with a mixture of wonder and suspicion at this offer, but upon seeing Ben's reaction she seems to become more comforted and in the end she nods solemnly, as though she were taking a blood oath.
"Very well." she says, gathering herself stiffly. "What do I have to do?"
”You do not have to do anything! I will take your pain so that your path to the boneyard comes when it is really your time!“ Sal says.
”I cannot aid you in battle but hopefully ease your path!“ she says and looks at her burned hands which are hidden with gloves.
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”You do not have to do anything! I will take your pain so that your path to the boneyard comes when it is really your time!“ Sal says.
Lidia seems less comforted again, but nods and closes her eyes and submits to being linked in much the same spirit as a child submits to their first haircut. Once it's done, she peeks out one eye carefully.
"Thank you." she says, apparently because she feels like she should say something.
Little Buddy thinks he's going to get a head scratch and is a little disappointed when all she does is rest her hand on his head and then remove it, so he goes looking for better prospects and decides to find out if Lidia is a head scratcher.
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so he goes looking for better prospects and decides to find out if Lidia is a head scratcher.
Turns out she is.
But when the little dinosaur nudges at her hand, she sort of automatically responds with pets and scatches, without really taking her attention off what she'd otherwise be doing. It seems like a reflex more than kindness. That said, she seems willing to keep it up as long as LB desires to receive it.