Before Elizabeth can introduce them, Melissa steps forward.
"Hey, Sister!" the girl says, running her hand through her own red hair. "We heard you been having troubles and thought we could help. We ain't totally incompetent about stuff like that. If'n you could fill in the details for us, my Miss and her friends could get to work."
Kyra seems unamused by Melissa's term of endearment. "Not much I can tell ya. Whatever weird things been happening lately, so far they haven't impacted the Brickyards none. The old folks used to tell stories about the faeries living in the woods, but no one has seen any faeries in living memory. Most people here don’t even believe in them."
An attractive young man walks by with a wheelbarrow full of clay. "Where did you want this load, Miss Kyra?" Kyra ignores the boy, and he lingers awkwardly until another bricklayer arrives to direct him.
"One thing I can tell ya is that something stinks in town. Literally. A foul stench like rotting meat, and nobody can figure out where it's coming from," Kyra says with a shrug.
"Has anything changed in the town recently?" Saleh asks. "New people or changes in behavior, before all the strange things happened? When did you notice this smell for example?"
"Nothing odd that I'm aware of. The smell started just a few days ago, but these happenings have been occurring for a couple weeks already."
"Let's start with the smell. If we can't locate the source we'll fall back to other options," Elizabeth say, not clarifying that 'other options' would be the priesthood and the local wizards.
You make your way back to the main part of Bricksburg and wander around for a while. You do pick up on the rotting smell this time, especially around the town's central square, but it's impossible to tell exactly where it's coming from.
The sun has nearly set by the time you finish. It might be best to get some rest tonight and resume your investigations tomorrow.
"Shall we return?" Saleh asks, "It seems we will have to visit the priests tomorrow. No-one else seems to know anything."
He shoots Melissa a wink and then offers his arm to Elizabeth. "May I escort you my lady?"
Elizabeth looks down at the man's arm and looks at Melissa with concern on her face. Melissa gives her a reassuring smile in return and nods at Saleh.
The sorceress swallows and closes her eyes. As if expecting pain at the contact, she reaches out and takes the offered arm. Pulling it in close, she seems to relax. "You may, Sir," she says.
Not long after retiring to their rooms, Saleh is not surprised to receive a knock on his door. Upon opening it, Melissa quickly slips inside the room and shuts the door behind her.
After giving the man a quick kiss on the cheek, she begins slipping out of her travelling clothes. "Miss gave me an hour. She hates sleeping alone," she says with a grin as she pushes her skirt to the floor. "So if'n you want to be doin' anythin' adventurous we best be gettin' to it."
"Adventurous eh?" Saleh replies, grasping Melissa's wrists in one large hand... "Well, I'm sure I can oblige!"
Some time later...
"What do you do for fun?" Saleh asks out of the blue, "Apart from this and setting up your mistress' love-life? Do you have any hobbies?"
"Oh, Mister Saleh," Melissa says with a soft laugh. "Is there really anything else you need to know about me?" She's quiet for a moment. "I like to cook," she says finally. "When it was just my Miss and me, I did all the cooking. I like to cook. But now that we're in the townhouse, Donna's doing all the cooking." The woman frowns, but then shrugs. "Miss is happy there, though, so that's ok." She rises from the bed, her pale skin shimmering in the candlelight, and reaches for her clothes. "I need to get back afore she comes looking for me."
~~~~~
Upon arriving back at her mistress' room, Melissa again sheds her clothes before climbing into bed to move up behind Elizabeth.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" the woman asks in a sleepy voice.
"Mister Saleh always brings a smile to my face, you know that," Melissa answers with a grin. "He'll do the same for you." She leans in closer and begins whispering in Elizabeth's ear and the woman closes her eyes and begins pressing her hips back against Melissa with a groan.
You are awakened from sleep around midnight by a great racket coming from the town square. Looking out the window of your room, you can see a boar of obscene size squealing and spraying liquid s$&@ everywhere. It has a leathery hide, gleaming red eyes, and tufts of black hair rising from its back. Mounted upon the pig is what seems to be a tiny old man, 6 inches tall, bent with the weight of years and. It has a long white beard and wears scarlet clothing that consists of a heavy coat and a tall, pointed cap.
"Wake up, ye little mortal bastards!" the tiny man shrieks. "Wake up and smell the s**%e! Har, har, har!"
Saleh leaps out of bed, since military habits dies hard he is still partly dressed and all his weapons are nearby. He grabs the bow, aims down from the window and sends an arrow flying.
Elizabeth is the first to rise from her bed, but Melissa is right behind handing her mistress her clothes before grabbing her own.
Elizabeth follows up with a spell of protection and Melissa pulls magic from the air to enchant her long knife.
They both then move off the Saleh's room.
Dodging Saleh's arrow, the little man steers his boar away from the inn and around another house, out of line of sight. You'll have to leave the inn to confront him.
Saleh curses and then makes for the door, brushing past the woman at the door.
"It flees!" He calls, juggling bow and swordbelt as he goes.
Saleh nearly bumps into Kragga in the hallway. The towering orc is clad only in a thin robe that leaves little of her curvaceous body to the imagination. Her wide-buckled belt holds it up, her weapons strapped securely to it. "Then we follow the little bastard," she growls.
You rush out of the inn, pursuing the boar-riding faerie. Fortunately, its disgusting trail is easy to follow. You track it to the Shrine of the Anointed One, where the massive swine is busy defecating all over the temple's steps. The little old man seems to have multiplied, as five identical duplicates now cling to the boar's back. All five laugh maniacally upon spotting you.
"We s+**e on your god! We s#!$e on you!" they say in unison. The pig squeals and scratches the ground with its hoof, preparing to charge!
Out of the corner of their eye, Elizabeth and Saleh spot a small, hunched figure swiftly sneaking into a nearby house...
"Get that thing!" Saleh calls to Elizabeth and Melissa. "Kragga and I can deal with this!"
Saleh stands his ground against the charging boar, ready to strike it down!
"What thing?" is Melissa's response before Elizabeth grabs her hand and heads towards the house.
Kragga nods to Saleh. "World Mother, lend me your might!" the orc declares as she stomps her foot. The ground beneath the boar suddenly erupts, throwing rubble into the air that rains down on the beast and its rider! They are shoved back but manage to resist the worst of the eruption. The little bearded men suddenly grow in height upon being injured, though, now the size of full-grown humans!
The not-so-little men gesture, and with a puff of smoke, a winged reptilian beast appears in the air! It dives at Kragga, raking the orc with its claws.
Hampered by the difficult terrain, the boar is unable to charge, simply rushing as fast as it can to get to Saleh. The fighter fails to hit the boar, and as his swords slice through one of the men, it proves to be an illusory duplicate, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Melissa rush into the house that the small figure entered. Once inside, they can see a little old man the size of a halfling, gnarled and twisted, with glittering eyes beneath a beetling brow. Large yellow teeth crowd his mouths, and streaks of blood runs down his face and clots in his white beards. He wears heavy boots and carries a gleaming razor, with which he threatens a middle-aged man. The man cries out in terror, backed into a corner.
Elizabeth begins with a spell that she's recently been working on, targeting the small figure.
She's still working out the bugs, however.
"Trickery eh?!" Saleh asks rhetorically. "I can deal with that!"
Once again he lashes out, cutting at the boars snout and jabbing at the rider(s).
Melissa simply steps up to the short creature and slashes at him with her knife.
Saleh misses the boar but manages to hit the real faerie. It howls with fury and swells in size again, hopping off the boar as it now stands as tall as an ogre!
Kragga sends a spray of stone shards from her hand, slicing up all the enemies and leaving deep, bleeding wounds!
As it is injured, the boar lashes out randomly with its tusks, goring Saleh badly!
The boar follows up with another vicious strike to Saleh while the bearded faerie directs its drake to tear into Kragga again!
***
Meanwhile, in the house, Elizabeth's spell falters and Melissa misses her strike. The bent old man turns on the rogue, slicing with its razor. Melissa narrowly dodges its strike!
Kragga gasps in pain as her wounds continue to mount. She coughs out some blood and raises her shield to ward off blows. "World Mother, preserve us!" she exclaims, healing herself in Saleh.
Bloodied but still standing for now Saleh strikes at the boar again, hoping to end it before it ends him!
Saleh's blades slice into both the boar and the giant faerie, once more finding the correct foe among the illusory duplicates. The faerie groans and falls to the ground, its dupicates vanishing as it shrinks back down to its mere 6-inch size. The repitilian creature vanishes--it was just an illusion, but convincing enough to trick Kragga's body into injuring itself. The boar squeals when Saleh slices it and makes a vicious rebuke, goring Kragga and shredding through both robes and flesh alike. The orc groans, badly wounded.
Elizabeth falls back on her basic attack spell, sending seven arcane darts unerringly into the small figure.
Melissa also sticks to what normally works.
Elizabeth's missiles burn into the faerie, then Melissa finishes him off with a stab of her knife. The old man falls, unmoving, and its would be victim sobs in relief.
Back outside, the boar gores Saleh again, but its bleeding wounds are beginning to take their toll.
Saleh's return blow is slowed by his now fairly copious bloodloss and achieves nothing...
Elizabeth makes her way back outside and, again, attempts to shift her foes reference of time.
Melissa drags the dead fey outside behind her mistress, dropping it next to the woman. She continues on with her knife at the ready to assist Saleh against the boar.
Kragga prays to invoke the World Mother, healing herself and alleviating some of Saleh's injuries.
The boar lunges at Saleh again, but this time he just barely manages to dodge away!
Elizabeth's spell has no effect, but Melissa moves in and drives her knife into the boar's back. The beast squeals and instinctively lashes out at Saleh again, its tusks ripping into his side.
Blood pours from the hellish swine's jagged wounds, and the fierce pig stumbles to its knees before at last collapsing to the ground!
Saleh promptly thrusts his sword deep into the pig's neck to ensure that it stays down, before crouching down and taking a few long, deep breaths.
"That was a vicious beast." He exclaims. "You got the one inside then? Were you hurt?"
Melissa nods and gestures towards the body on the ground next to Elizabeth. "We're ok," she says looking over the bloody man. "You like you could use some attention, though. Let's get you back to the inn."
You leave the cleanup the townsfolk and return to the inn to rest. Kragga's prayers restore herself and Saleh to full health.
In the morning, the common room is abuzz with worried conversation. You prevented the faeries from killing one man, but three other townsfolk were murdered while you fought the boar and its rider. Their blood was used to spell out words in Elvish on the walls of their homes. In addition, several tools and kilns at the Brickyards were destroyed.
Kyra Krent shuts down the Brickyards and puts spears in the hands of all her workers, instructing them to patrol the town to defend against further attacks. The air is thick with tension and unease.
Elizabeth will spend some time searching around to find someone that speaks elvish.
Few of the citizens of Bricksburg can read the Common tongue, let alone Elvish! Everybody Elizabeth asks agrees the only person who might know the language is the wizard Abalard. He spends most of his time in his home but takes his dinner every evening at the Redbrick Pub, where he meets nightly with Kyra Krent's niece, coincidentally also named Elizabeth.
As she is gathering information, Elizabeth notices a young boy watching her. The boy follows the sorceress but stays far enough away that he can run if approached.
When Elizabeth points out the boy, Melissa nods and heads off to the do something else. Once her mistress moves on, Melissa comes back around to see if she can sneak up on the lad.
Melissa uses the buildings as cover as she sneaks up behind the boy without him noticing. He is perhaps eight or nine years old, with brown hair in a bowl cut. His attention remains focused on Elizabeth.
Moving up behind the boy, Melissa reaches out and snags him by the ear.
"And just what d'ya think yer doing, little man?" she demands in a voice borrowed from her mother.
"Ouch! Hey! I weren't doing nothing! Let me go!" the boy protests.
"And what would yer ma say if'n she found out you was spying on two pretty women?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. "So why dontcha tell me what you were doin' and I won't tell her." She gives the ear a shake. "An' if'n ya try to tell me nuthin', I might keep me an ear."
"My ma's dead," the boy mutters. He doesn't seem willing to open up.
"Then there's no one to keep me from taking your ear, is there?" Melissa barks at the kid.
The boy sighs. "Alright, fine. I ain't no peeper, though. That's Brother Enias. I saw him creeping around outside the inn last night, watching the big green lady getting undressed.
"Me name's Ruprecht. I was following you cause you was asking about the words the faeries wrote last night. Well, uh, I can read 'em. No clue how, but I can. Thought maybe I should tell you but I didn't want to get in trouble. Folks say I'm touched in the head already, don't want to give them more to say about me. But, uh, if you wanna know, the words say 'Give Him Back!'"
Melissa gets the sense there is more the boy wants to say, but he seems afraid.
Melissa looks up at her mistress with a raised eyebrow.
Turning her attention back to the boy, she reaches into her belt and pulls out a trio of copper coins. She holds them up in front of his face and releases his ear. With her other hand she takes one of the coins and puts it in the kid's hand.
"That's for tellin' the truth and translatin' the elvish words for us," she says with a smile. She wiggles the other two coins.
"Anythin' else ya think we might be needin' to know?"
Ruprecht marvels at the coins. He glances around nervously before responding. "There is one other thing. The other night I was out late, and I saw the old wizard, Abalard, come out of the woods, accompanied by two hulking strangers. They were dragging a body. Dunno who it was or where they took it."