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"Cool it Toots, we're all in the same boat here." says Mheenah from her perch on the doorknob. "We was about to go search the rest of this crummy inn for clues."
Mheenah looks around at her companion companions.
"I could see maybe one of our masters sneakin' off in the middle of the night without us noticin'. But all four of 'em? I don' think so. Plus my room was locked from the inside. If Elly went out the door, how'd she manage that?"
"Which means that they was either magicked outta those rooms, or there are some secret doors into those rooms and they was somehow kidnapped without us noticin'. And without a struggle. I'm puttin' my money on magic."
"Hey Wolfy, you get any weird scents at all in your room? Like otha people was there? Or maybe some funny smoke or powder smells?"
No and i would have found something. There's absolutely nothing She hasnt stopped pacing, Who kidnaps a child... i knew i should have stayed awake.
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Spirit heads down the stairs back to the pub area...
...and finds the innkeeper by the bar along with a waitress. The only customer right now appears to be the shady looking dude the party witnessed last night eating breakfast at the table nearest the door...
Meanwhile, Mheenah checks the door to the south just before the stairs. She finds it locked...
...but with a couple of flicks of her tail she quickly unlocks it, cracking it open to peek inside...
...and finds...
This room contains a bed, a storage chest, a table, and four chairs. A rough rug covers the center of the floor. Mheenah can tell from the unmade bed that the room is being used...but there appears to be no sign of the occupant...
"Hi!" Spirit proclaims to everyone and noone in particular from the stairs. "Where is everybody? Shouldn't there be more people having breakfast? Have you seen my friends? Or my master?"
Lorelei is sensing motive on that...suspicious...
Lorelei watches, calming just a tad, enough to start gathering information and figuring out what's going on. She knows her son, enough to know someone's trying to give her the run around.
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When Mheenah finds no one in the room, she bounces in and begins looking around. She looks under the rug, inside the chest, and anywhere else her fancy takes her.
But her black little heart is just not in it. Feeling increasingly disconnected and lost, and more than a little angry now, she ends up flopping down onto one of the pillows and begins plucking away the threads of the pillow and mattress with her claws, muttering vile imprecations under her breath against whoever dared steal her mistress.
It doesn't take her long to make a mess, and this makes her feel a little better. She spits greenish black spittle down into the pile of rags and feathers and this helps even more. Her mind buzzes with wild theories about what has become of the missing adventurers, mostly involving devious elves.
After several minutes of this, she suddenly snaps out of her vandalizing reverie and realizes someone might come walking back in any moment. She bounces out the door and closes it, then skitters up the wall to a nearby sconce and goes invisible, brooding and watching.
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While Mheenah doesn't find much interesting in the room, what she discovers afterwards is a bit more intriguing to her...
A couple of minutes after leaving the room, she hears footsteps coming up the stairs. It's the shady fellow she saw downstairs last night and she watches as he enters the room she just left and closes the door...but even outside the door, she can hear the curses from the man upon seeing the mess left in his room...
"Oh, okay!" Spirit turns to go and finds Lorelei behind him. "Oh, you heard? It'll all be okay! Though I still think it would be fun to go find them..."
We all need to speak in private. immediately Lorelei looks to Spirit before heading to gather everyone.
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...but even outside the door, she can hear the curses from the man upon seeing the mess left in his room...
Mheenah giggles in delight at the consternation of the shady man.
Feeling a little better now, she flits invisibly to the stairway to see what's happening with the others. Seeing the wolf attempting to gather the group, she settles on the wolf's back.
"Don't worry. Jes' me." she whispers.
Mr. Pitch cautiously rests next to Lorelei. "What do you think we should do, Hunter."
"Oooo, a secret meeting! How exciting!" Spirit exclaims as he follows the wolf back to one of the rooms.
"So what are we going to do?" he asks as soon as everyone's together. Suddenly he gasps in excitement. "Are we going to have an adventure?"
First off. We are being lied to, and or things hidden from us. The innkeeper knows something about what happened, My boy Leon wouldn't just leave like that. He has a fear of being apart from my sight. Something they wouldn't know. She paces across the room, thinking There's more going on than qe realize, and we'll need to gather information. The people here clearly know something.
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"Right! So, we get that slimy innkeeper, you bite him in the leg and drag him to the ground, then Mr Pitch can peck out his eyes and I'll give him a poison sting in the neck and Spirit can... I dunno, do whatever it is you can do. Then after we torture him like that for... ooh, maybe half an hour, we can convince him to talk!"
Mheenah seems very pleased with this plan.
"Ummm..." Spirit stares blankly at Mheenah for a bit. "Maybe we could just ask? That doesn't sound very nice to do."
We wait and track him after the patrons leave. Then ambush and get information. Its imperative that we do not kill or give any idea that we're going to kill until we have what we need. Lorelei seems to take a bit of command, having some understanding of humanoid minds and some semblance of a plan.
"But that will take forever. What are we going to do before night? Oh! Oh! We should go out and look around the town! Maybe we can find out where they went on our own!"
"Getting the innkeeper alone would be better." The intelligent raven agrees.
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"They might be held captive here in the inn. I think we should poke around here more, if we ain't gonna tackle the innkeeper right now." Mheenah hisses back over her shoulder. She grabs hold of her horns anxiously. "I still don' understand why's I didn't wake up when Elly was bein' took! One thought from her, and I shoulda been awake!"
They arent around. I know the scents, none of them are around. Something is going on and we need information that smiling man and the innkeeper have. Its time to stop being nice and get what we need
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They arent around. I know the scents, none of them are around. Something is going on and we need information that smiling man and the innkeeper have. Its time to stop being nice and get what we need
"The smilin' man? Why he's alone right now. I saw him go inta his room. Let's go torture him! I really wanna see Mr Pitch peck out someone's eyes!"
"But... if we start attacking people... won't people start attacking us back?"
"Patience. The nearby humans would hear the ruckus and defend the innkeeper."
that's why we won't attack them... we have to be intelligent
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"Sooooo... you wanna just sit here on the stairs?" says a rather disappointed and fidgety Mheenah. She flops down dramatically onto her butt. "It's justa barmaid and a couple rubes. I could scare 'em off easy. But have it *your* way!"
She scoots backward on her butt until her back is against the wall, then she crosses her arms and settles down to wait, impatient and pouting. To emphasize how impatient she's feeling, she soon begins to whistle a chipper little tune.
"Maybe we should go outside and look around! Maybe there would be tracks or something! Or we could talk to that other guy who was here when we got here."
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As you discuss amongst yourselves, you notice the shady man storm out of his room and down the stairs. He heads straight to the common room, approaches the innkeeper and hisses, probably louder than he intended, ”Someone was in my room…”
The innkeeper whispers to him and pulls him towards the back into another room…
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He heads straight to the common room, approaches the innkeeper and hisses, probably louder than he intended, ”Someone was in my room…”
Mheenah grins, her sharp little fangs glinting. "Ain't I a stinkah?" she says to her companions.
The innkeeper whispers to him and pulls him towards the back into another room…
Mheenah jumps up, turns invisible, and takes flight. She will follow the two men into the room where they are about to have their conference.
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Mheenah barely makes it into the room before the innkeeper closes the door...
Four large and comfortable chairs face a huge fireplace in the east wall, while a bare wooden table has four hard chairs placed around it. Crates of plates and mugs are stacked in the southeast corner. An open door reveals what appears to be a bedroom to Mheenah, probably Bertram's (the innkeeper)...
She sees the two fellows sitting by the table; being invisible, she can easily eavesdrop on their conversation...
"...from the looks of it, sounds like some kinda prank, Derek. Nothing was taken...and nothing was discovered from what ye be saying," says the innkeeper.
The man named Derek scowls. "My reputation around here is known; anyone would know better than to pull a prank on me...I'll gut 'em, if I be a finding 'em. Still think it's those damnable Elves; they be snoopin' around. You need be takin' care of those two...or you know damn well 'She' won't be happy..."
Bertram's brows furrow. "Ye let me be a worryin' 'bout the mistress. Them Elves be a daunting pair and won't be taken as easily as others...I'll take care of 'em when the opportunity arises. 'Twas probably just one of those creatures that our most recent captives left behind that tore up yer room; ye should've taken care of them last night as well. They probably be wild without their masters. Ye'll have to take care of them next..."
Derek nods. "Aye, I be takin' care of them tonight if they be stickin' around...and if I be finding it were one of them in me room, I be slittin' its throat..."
The innkeeper frowns. "Ye jest make sure ye be doin' it discretely...we be growin' but we need more converts before we can come out in the open...now be on your way, we be talkin' later..."
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Mheenah flutters over and peeks into the probable bedroom, just to see if there's anything strange or unusual there. But once Derek opens the door to leave the room, she flits out quick as a fairy on fire and bolts back to the others.
She reappears on the stairs.
"Quick! Back to my room! We gotta talk!" she squeaks, then scampers up the steps on all fours and scuttles back into her room.
Once there, she relates what she heard.
"They did it! It's some sorta weird cult! We need ta find the elves-- they'll know what's goin' on! They can help us! We sure can't stay here!" she wails, jumping up and down and pulling on her horns.
"Yeah! Let's go find the elves! It'll be fun! Where do you think they are?" Spirit, in his usual manner, goes rapidly from subject to subject. "Oh, you know what would be fun? If we all sneak out without them noticing! Do you think maybe we could go out a window?"
Mr. Pitch is more inclined to disbelieve anything the tiny outsider says, but Mheenah spoke with such strong conviction, the raven will table his issues with the demon later.
"I assent to Mheenah's action. Let us find these elves. Posthaste."
im listening. Lorelei follows back inside the room, thinking and contemplating.
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"Yeah, going out the windah sounds like a good idea-- the room at the end of the hall had a windah. Mr. Pitch, maybe you can do a flyover of the area and see if you can find the elves? I think I heard Elly say something about a sacred oak grove northa town."
"I think there's a door outside that leads ta the cellar. Maybe Lorelei and Spirit could look around down there?"
"I wanna try and get back inta that rotten innkeeper's room. I got a feeling he's hidin' somethin' in there."
Mr. Pitch hops and wings it to the end of the hall to look for a room with an open window.
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Mr. Pitch sees the window that Mheenah flies out of in room 10...
Once out the window, Mheenah swoops down to the door that she thinks leads to the innkeeper's bedroom...upon picking the lock and opening the door, her suspicions were correct...
A huge, soft bed is the major feature of this room. A desk strewn with papers and a hard wooden chair sit next to the bed. Several plain woolen rugs lie on the floor. A large brass-bound wooden chest rests against the north wall.
Spirit runs over to the window and investigates to see how easy climbing up and down would be.
The super-intelligent raven flies north to scout the sacred oak grove for the elves.