The Winds of Fate's page

oops. Back at the tailor's . . .
Zelladania is too surprised to protest as Raziel buys the dress and blushes when it is handed to her. One the walk back to the inn, she recovers enough to speak again. "This dress is so beautiful, thank you so much for buying it. " A faint blush still remains on her cheeks during the walk back.

Back to the present, are you all going to retire for the night? If so, Zelladania will request being escorted back to the carnival. With the tensions in town, she doesn't feel safe walking back on her own.

Try not to get eaten by a grue and take an anti-seabear circle with you.

Meanwhile, it has been a bit busy with the kids school starting back up this week. Our schools are doing the distance learning. I hate it

Since it's not dark out yet, Zelladania would have joined you all at the inn unless you requested she do something else. She will have taken a seat next to Raziel and at his question on drink, replies with a smile: "Red wine sounds good to me to me as well." She will drink her wine quietly, not wanting to interfere with your groups plans to find out the real murderers and exonerate the "sphinx".

For now, the evening seems calm as you all discuss your plans.

Raziel, Levann takes in the appearance of you and Zelladania, looks like he is about to say something, but glances back at Pelipe and others and seems to change his mind about whatever he was going to say. "The cost of that dress is 10 silver. If you wish to purchase it I will have one of my assistants wrap it up for you."

If yes, he waves an assistant over who will wrap it up for you.

The common room of the Inn is about half full of people, some having a late evening meal and others talking and drinking by the bar and at a couple of tables.

From her attempt to gather information, Pelipe learns that the farmer is actually a well known figure to both the waitress and bartender. He stops by the Inn roughly once a week to deliver some various root vegetables and also the results of his distillery. Little prompting is needed to get them to comment on his various concoctions, regardless of the awkwardness of the questions. The bartender will even sell you a glass (or bottle) of the liquor Ephram produces if you are interested. (Likely the potential sale is responsible for such willingness to tell you all about the famer.) The available liquor is something like a poitin or vodka that has been infused with the blackberries that are currently in season. It is likely to be the strongest liquor available at the bar and even one sip tells you that it is probaly too potent for you.

On the topic of Risha and her shop, one of the waitress shows Pelipe a bracelet that she is wearing. It appears to be a shiny copper charm bracelet with very well made glass "gems" dangling from it. She tells you that Risha is a really talented glass-blower who can get the most amazing colors in her glass that look so close to the real thing that she feels so fancy wearing her jewelry even if it is really just glass. The waitress is clearly proud to own such a lovely trinket and enjoys showing it off and talking about jewelry in general. If you express continued interest in Risha's work, the waitress will tell you that you should stop by the shrine to Shelyn because there is a beautiful stained glass representation of Shelyn's holy symbol that Risha crafted and donated to it because she is a devoted follower of the goddess.

Those who work at the Inn don't have much to say about Levann other than that his prices are usually to high for them. Some of the patrons will confirm that while his prices are high and he can be a bit haughty, the quality of his work is worth the prices he charges and he guarantees his clients satisfaction. Despite his usual arrogance about charging the prices he feels his work is worth, it is common knowledge that the local priests of Shelyn and Pharasma go to him for their formal robes. For priestly attire, Levann only charges them for the cost of whatever materials they want used, but doesn't charge them for his time spent crafting them.

Though it is getting to be fairly later in the evening, it is the summer season and though the sun is low in the sky it will likely be at least another hour before actual sunset.

Levann tries to keep a polite smile on his face despite Pelipe's awkwardness in order to make a future sale.

Pelipe rolled high enough to associate such a symbol as most likely belonging to the Gilded Hand. It is a thieves guild that was founded in Korvosa, but has been spreading out to various cities in Varisia and the surrounding nations.

Ivar, yes, this should be the 3rd night

No one seems to respond to Ivar's question as you all leave the shop.

Pelipe, you do not think that is is a symbol of any religion.
Knowledge local is the skill for this.

Levann will look over the garments, grimacing as he does so. "Well, I suppose such a horrendous mixing of colors is expected for this sort of costume. The construction itself is very poor quality, though an a casual observer might assume the look of that was done on purpose for the costume. However, there is a severe lack of skill throughout the whole construction of it. Obviously not the work of an actual tailor. The threads are knotted at the end as if they were ropes and not tucked down to avoid getting snagged on anything. Even the lowest of my apprentices could do better than this."

"Yes actually. A few weeks ago a red-haired man with a beard did come into my shop. I almost sent him right back out since he looked rather scruffy, but he was offering to pay half up front so I figured that even if he couldn't afford the other half I would have at least that money and I could always refit the clothes for another client. I had one of my assistants deal with him for that first visit, but I had to deal with him personally for his fitting and then his pick up last week. I see too many clients to remember them all, but it's not often I have an assistant refusing to service one. Something about a symbol on the man's necklace, a goldish yellow painted hand, meaning he's not the type who's business we want. He could afford my prices, so that is the kind of business I want."

Levann appears to be telling the truth.

"Madam, I assure you that I make clothes that are designed to not break away. I craft fashionable clothing, not costumes for theater performers. They usually can't afford my prices anyway. Now please, keep this conversation private."

Over by the dresses on display, Zelladania is obviously taken by a deep purple dress woven from an unusually silky wool that is embroidered about the hemline with butterflies in colors of yellow and green. Whispering back to Raziel, "This wool is softer than any I've felt before. I wonder what animal it came from?"

Back at the conversation with the tailor, "Please, let's not bring the sheriff into this, I don't want our private lives to become fodder for the gossip mongers around town. My wife's great aunt, Abigal, has been practicing herbal remedies and alchemies for many years, so we went to her for help with our problem because we felt we could trust her to keep things private. What with her advanced age, she has a hard time walking long distances, so I've been making trips about town for whatever items she needs for her work. My wife and I have been trying to conceive for many years now and the only time we did ended prematurely. Abigal has been experimenting with various remedies and potions to try to help us conceive and to ensure that our baby will be born healthy."

Sorry for the delay. It was a very busy weekend here.

will save: 1d20 ⇒ 16

The tailor seems quite shocked by Selkyon's statements. "I heard about Sister Woodmere's death, but why would you need to ask me anything about that? My purchases are my own business and unless you intend to purchase anything, I suggest that you leave my shop."

Selkyon, as far as you can tell, he is telling the truth.

Zelladania grins back at Raziel, happy to have a part to play in this scouting mission and tries not to show how eager she is to look at all the dresses in the shop.

Ivar, you don't see any sign of being followed.

As you all enter the shop, you see a tailor overseeing two of his assistants, one is showing fabric samples to a well dressed older woman and the other who is making detailed notes as a young couple describe the clothes they want made for their wedding.

The first worker that Selkyon speaks to is a child of roughly 12 years of age who is carrying the cloth samples rejected by the older woman back to their display case. He gives a shallow bow so as to not drop the samples in his arms and says, "Yes sir, I'll take you right to him."

Arms still full he quickly trots over to Levann and you can hear him say something about new customers. Levann looks over to your group and makes his way over to you after telling the boy to be careful with the samples and to put them away carefully.

Levann puts on his best customer service smile as he looks from Selkyon to Pelipe, trying to calculate which of you hold the purse strings. "Welcome to my humble shop. How may I assist you today?"

A short walk down the street will bring you to a storefront with a wooden sign that features a spool of thread and the lettering "Levann's Textiles and Tailors" engraved in it. The storefront window has displays of various styles of fabrics and drawings of the lastest fashions. Peering past the displays in the window, you can see both cutomers and workers in the shop right now.

Pelipe, no hidden motives were sensed by you.

Selkyon, I somehow missed answering that one, but neither halfling is familiar with all of his clientele and would tell you that they cannot say one way or another if he does or not.

Regarding Ivar's last question, granny can't really say who was in at what time, but that she is at least sure that Ephram and Risha hadn't been in the store that day at all. Ephram because he only stops by on days he takes his produce into town and Risha has been busy running her own store.

Given that you are all already in the merchant district of the city, Ifay would be the closest name on the list to look into. A short walk down the streen will bring you to a storefront with a wooden sign that features a spool of thread and the lettering "Levann's Textiles and Tailors" engraved in it. The storefront window has displays of various styles of fabrics and drawings of the lastest fashions. Peering past the displays in the window, you can see both cutomers and workers in the shop right now.

Breena takes a moment to think, "Maybe four days ago, I think. I just didn't like the look of him. I was going to tell Gran when I got back, but he was gone by then. It was right before lunch time because I was on my way to the market stalls and butcher's shop and stuff. He managed to look scruffy and well dressed at the same time."

None are familiar to you. Each name listed is accompanied by an identifying comment.
Ifay Levann - Levan's Textiles and Tailors
Ephram Underhill - Vegetable Farmer
Robella Monchello - Ilsurian Storage and Hauling
Kylin Windsong - Street Performer
Risha Lurrey - Risha's Trinkets and Jewelry
Kyra Reeds - Meadowsweet Stable and Kennel

The Halfling responds to Ivar, "Red beard? No, not even red headed."

Breena pipes up, "I seen a big man with a red beard a couple times. a few days ago he was just hanging outside the shop like he was waiting on someone, but I was on my way to run and errand so I never saw who came out to him. Then the morning of that poor fellows death I was out early because I needed to go harvest some morning blooming flowers and he was on the street pointing up to the sky and telling people he'd just seen a sphinx fly off. I looked to where he was pointing, but I didn't see anything. I just figured his view might be better from up there." She gives a little shrug.

"Altering ones body, but not a complete change of form. Either changing features or adding them, but still recognizable as either human or at least humanoid."

"As to coming to me for ingredient, unless the person grows or harvests their own ingredients, then it is possible that they have been in my shop. Most of my customers don't purchase the kind of ingredients used for alchemical or magical formulas or potions. So I suppose it's safe to leave out local wives and cooks who come to me for various herbs. Various acolytes of the local temples and shrines come here for herbs for incense, offerings and in the case of the Pharasmins, body preservation, so they're not likely to be suspects either."

She will go back behind the counter and takes a piece of paper and writes down a few names on it before walking back around and handing it to Selkyon. "Here are the ones whose use of herbs I cannot personally attest to and who purchase some of my more esoteric plants."

Meanwhile, Breena shows Pelipe some plants while continuing their conversation. "I work here in the shop because I'm the only one of my siblings who has any talent with alchemy and I've been learning some from Gran. I can't make anything like what was in your vials though. Not yet at least. She's making me learn about all the names, proper care and harvesting methods of all the herbs in the shop first. Said I need to be familiar with all the ingredients before being trusted to make anything. Gran doesn't make much stuff anymore and most of it is for personal and family use. About the only things she makes now to sell are either just reagents used in making other things and healing poultices and such. I don't know any other alchemists in the city, it's not like there's a guild or anything."

Breena grin back at Raziel and snickers at Pelipe's suggestion. Meanwhile, the older halfling responds to Selkyon.

The older Halfling will walk out from behind the counter to get a better look at the vials. Holding out her hand to him, "Here, let me see one of those vials."

Assuming that he hands it to her, she will examine the vial and careful sniff whatever remains in it. "Well now, I don't mess with this type of stuff personally. I mostly just grow my plants and whip up the occasional batch of mundane concoctions. This was something mixed up by someone who messes with alchemical formulas. Likely something self transformative, but I can't say for certain."

The Halfling girl takes a look at Selkyon, then gives a little sigh as she hops down off the stool. Staying behind the counter, she walks towards the wall and gives a stomp on the floor with her little foot as she looks down at the floor and says, "Gran! There's big people here to talk to you!"

After that, she'll walk back over to her stool and climb back up on it while giving your group a questioning look.

After a couple moments, you hear a door in the floor being opened as an older Halfling woman clambers up from somewhere under the floor. She'll take the time to close the door back up and then makes sure her hair is still up in its little bun and straightens her work tunic before she turns to your group.

"Hmph, well, I've certainly never seen the lot of you in my humble little store before. What is it that I can help you with? Breena seems to think that whatever your asking is beyond her capabilities." She'll give the girl a side eye look that seems to indicate that Breena claims that whenever she just doesn't want to do something. For her part, Breena gives a little eyeroll at that last statement.

With no performances scheduled and the carnival order to not leave town, Zelladania has plenty of free time on her hands and accepts Pelipe's invitation to join the group on a walk to the town.

You head off towards the merchant section of the town and it doesn't take you long at all to find one with a sign out front: "Shelyn's Garden".

Through the large storefront window you can see various potted plants ranging from beautiful roses to unusual looking herbs. There are also signs advertising flowers for your special someone, love charms, hangover cures and hard to find herbs.

If you walk in through the front door (which is currently propped open), you will see that the main room of this shop is crammed with shelves, leaving narrow ailse for customers to walk though. The shelves nearest the window (and thus nearest sunlight) are filled with potted plants of various types. Other shelves are full of various bunches of dried herbs hanging from strings, vials filled with extracts and infused oils, an odd assortment of charms, jars of crushed herbs and sachets of various sized filled with who knows what.

Seated on a stool behind a counter in the back of the main room is a Halfling girl who looks to be between 16-18 years old. If you approach the counter, she will smile at your group and asks if she can help you find anything.

For your mapmaking endeavors, you plot out that there was no way a single carnival worker could have been responsible for all the thefts. Given the locations, it would have taken at least 3 carnival workers to manage it in the timeframe given. That also means that it would have taken at least 3 thieves of any origin to commit all the thefts as well.

Zelladania waves over a passing carnival performer and introduces him to Raziel. "This is Vanaveer, he doubles as both an acrobat and a clown, if you have any questions about costumes maybe you can ask him?"

If asked, Van will reply that he and the other clowns had just packed about their costumes since they weren't sure there would be anymore performances here and all their costumes and equipment were accounted for.

Zelladania looks at Raziel bemusedly, both for his apparent shyness and because she has no idea why he would ask about clown costumes. "I haven't heard about anyone missing any costumes, but if any were missing it might not be realized until someone was preparing for a performance."

The dress shopkeeper responds to Selkyon, "None of us sell any costumes that would be used by performers. It would tarnish our reputation if just any underskilled performer could claim to be attached to our carnival. A good reputation brings more customers and allows us to charge more for our performances."

In regards to Sister Woodmere, none of the shopkeepers were familiar with her and cannot recall if they had seen her before.

The shopkeep who sells various meat and vegtable kabobs replies to Selkyon's last question. "I think I may have sold to a fellow with red beard yesterday. I can't say much else beyond that, the fellow didn't seem interested in any casual conversation. He just asked for a couple kabobs and then headed in the direction of the Midway." As far as you can tell, he is being honest with his answer.

Selkyon, with your perception roll, you notice what looks to be a couple abandoned purses tossed between two crates of vegtables and cooking supplies. As soon as you pick them up, it is obvious that both are empty.

Popping over here to make sure we are continuing with the carnival shops then?

Yes, my reading of the module has a lot of running around as you try to figure out what is going on. Though that is the type of mystery movies I enjoy watching. Clue is still one of my favorites.

Zelladania is easy to find by the workers tent and wagon area and given that the carnival is currently closed, she is free to join you on your investigative mission. Not only is she free, but she seems more than willing to go with you all to the Winding Market area of the carnival.

When you get there, you can see that the shops are closed, though there are some people inside the stalls packing away merchandise since the carnival was closed. After a short discussion between Zelladania and the shopkeepers about your investigation, they will allow your group to look around.

Any specific questions or just the general one? And whoever wants to can make Perception checks.

Feldane snorts in amusement, at the first part of Pelipe's speech. "First of all, I am not stupid enough to want to be a mayor and the have the headaches that come along with it. As for giving speeches, any troublemakers will be more likely to listen to threats of getting tossed in a cell for interfering with official investigations that they would about being told what is right and fair. And while evidence that the sphinx is being framed is certainly a good thing to have, you'll still have a fair amount of people in the town won't believe in her innocence unless you can provide the actual guilty party."

Sheriff Feldane looks over to Almara. "As soon as the women outside told me about Sister Woodmere, I sent the deputy with me off to the Temple of Pharasma for them to come and fetch her body. Clerics of Erastil tend to wander around, but they will preserve her until proper rites and can be arranged for her. Now, I'm going to assume the sphinx isn't in here for her own safety and I would encourage you to keep her hidden until this matter is dealt with. I will say that she is being held in a safe place during the investigation, but if I hear word of her being out, I will have her put into a cell."

Looking back at the group, Feldane adds, "Since you all are working on behalf of the carnival, you can also investigate the thefts that took place here as well." After that, she turns and leaves the tent.

Almara answers Selkyon, "Everyone has already been told to cooperate with your investigations and you can ask questions of anyone here. I make it a point to not hire thieves and even the newest hire has been with us for almost a year now. There would be no reason for anyone to start up thieving now and we haven't had any problems with this in any of the previous towns we've visited of accusations of theft."

"The women outside the tent already told me that they were coming as a show of support for Sister Woodmere and that she planned to peacefully resolve things between the carnival and the town. Everyone knows that she had a spell that kept people from lying in her presence. Not that she ever used it without the permission of the people involved of course, that just wasn't the type of person she was. Sister Woodmere was a pacifist and believed that all disputes could be resolved through calm and rational discussions."

"Of course we have both tailors and alchemists in town. You can just walk down the main street of the merchant district and see several shops that advertise their tailors and their wares. We're not a big enough city to have individual guilds for everything. The merchants guild would cover the tailors, but for alchemists, well, we have no shops dedicated only for that purpose. Just not enough business their to keep a shop afloat. The thing to do for that would be to check the couple of herbalist shops we have. They sell herbs for both mundane and magical uses in addition to selling whatever concoctions they make on their own. One sells a hangover cure that people swear by."

"I will say that while there is evidence that the sphinx was set up to take the blame, that doesn't bring us any closer to finding out who actually committed these murders or their motives for them. Popular opinion is rarely concerned with actual facts and I can't guarantee that others will agree with me or what verdict may be handed down if this goes to trial. That's also assuming no one gets the bright idea to try and handle this on their own and tries to deal with the sphinx in their own way. I've already heard a rumor that a group are trying to put together enough coin to offer a bounty for its head. Now, I won't tolerate that type of vigilante nonsense and you can be assured that if I catch anyone involved in that sort of thing I will toss them right into a cell. Though there is still a chance something might be tried before me or my deputies catch hold of them"

Your characters do know where the merchant district is, The Locked Box where Walder was killed was right on the edge of it.

Feldane responds, "There is no official temple of Erastil around here. Sister Woodmere tended a small grove just outside of town where any faithful could visit to offer up any prayers. As far as I know, she was well liked and I can't think of anyone who would want her dead. If anyone did wish her harm, why would they do it at a crowded carnival when she often spends long periods of time alone tending to her grove?"

Huh, I guess I had clicked the wrong tab when I made those posts. We'll just blame being tired for that one.

Though on the topic of recruit thread, are we still good with the 4 or shall we cast out a line and see if we can reel anyone else in?

Almara sighs, "Well, I'm sure the sheriff is bound to be here any minute now, so I will let her decide what should be done."

As if on cue, Sheriff Feldane walks into the tent, escorted by one of the Carnival's guards and heads straight for Almara. "So, I come up here to investigate reports of a mass theft of purses and then find out another citizen has been murdered? And a respected cleric at that."

The Sheriff looks around the tent and her eyes settle on the cage. "Where is the sphinx at? Why isn't she in the cage? Did she escape after killing Sister Woodmere?"

I don't think any of them play RPGs. At least not yet, two of them are still kind of young. The youngest totally has goblin ears. We'll see if he grows into them or not as he gets older.

Selkyon, the shiver vials were more like small, rounded bottom test tubes, straight sides and corks for the stoppers. The ones you have just found were more similar to potion bottles. Small, flat bottomed with the lower half like a bulb with the top narrower with a cork stopper.

For the tracks, you lose them a few feet from the tent and they become muddled with all the foot traffic around the tent and the wagons behind it.

Almara looks over to Ivar and shrugs. "I don't recognize it, but we have a lot of costumes. We have our own tailor who travels with us and sews and mends all of our costumes and cloths. They go through a lot of wear and tear in our line of work. As for where someone would get one, well, I would assume any half-decent tailor anywhere could make one. They are one of the simplest of our costumes to make. The don't need to be fitted to any specific performer because they are meant to be baggy and any scraps can be used to make them."

Almara will then address Pelipe. "Towns always know when we are coming. Merchants other travelers tend to move a lot faster than our caravan, so anyone who passes us or leaves from the same city before we do often carries word ahead to the next towns. The next several towns ahead of us likely already expect our arrival based on travelers who have gone on ahead for whatever business or pleasure reasons they had. It's just the way these things work and often the towns will have already cleared away a section for us to set up in."

Well, I can get back to posting more regularly now, house guests have left. My husband's parents, sister, her boyfriend and 3 of her kids.

Neither caster or sphinx are in the tent.

Pelipe, while not actual potions, you are able to discern that the contents of the vials were some kind of alchemical components.

Ivar, yes, the claw marks appear to be the same as those on Walder's body.

Pelipe, Sister Esrelda is well known among the locals, especially those who live on the outskirts of town. She would have been mentioned by some of the farmers who had been responsible for your hire since she often treats sick and injured animals and would have treated any animals that had been injured, but not killed by the werewolf. It is also known that she is of mixed heritage and that her mother was a Varisian, that in conjunction with her occasionally playing the role of peacemaker in the occasional disagreements that can happen between farmers and merchants would have made her a logical choice to try to defuse tensions between the carnival and the town.

Almara turn to Ivar, "The local women right outside the tent said that she was Sister Esrelda Woodmere, the town's local cleric of Erastil. Obviously we haven't had time to ask them much more than that."

Raziel, your Perception check reveals a slender rope burn around her throat, indicative of strangulation by garrote or similar weapon. Lack of signs of struggle indicate that the deed was done quickly and quietly since the cord around her neck would also have prevented her from crying out for help or from casting any spell with a somatic component.

Selkyon, you survival check shows you that the ground is firm and the inside of the tent has seen a lot of foot traffic, however you do not see any tracks of a large, heavy feline body, (not that you expected to see any). You also identify recent humanoid tracks going north to the back of the tent, where some of the tent stakes have been pulled to permit egress. Near the egress, you see three small glass vials and right outside the tent you see a small pile of tear-away clown costumes.

Everyone can clearly see that the cage door is unlocked and has been left open.

By the Sphinx's tent, you see a small crowd, most are other carnival workers and a few townsfolk who hadn't been part of the confrontation that you all dealt with.

Since the carnival workers all know that you are working to clear the Sphinx, they will move out of your way and allow you to go into the tent if you want.

If you enter the tent, you see Almara looking down at the body of an older woman wearing clerical robes that clearly has been slashed multiple times by something with claws.

If you enter you may make whatever skill check that you wish to use for this situation.

Almara looks over to Pelipe. "We were ordered to stay here by Sheriff Feldane until the investigation was complete. To leave now would both defy the local authority and convince the locals that we were guilty. Our carnival is large and it takes a full day to both set up and later break back down to fit onto our wagons, that is plenty of time for word to get back to the sheriff and for her to send out people to stop us from leaving."

"I would certainly like to hear what you have found out while in town. We can go to my wagon to discuss it, I'd rather not have the conversation out in the open."

Almara will begin to lead your group back to where her wagon. You do not even make it out of the Midway section of the carnival grounds when one of the carnival workers comes running towards Almara. "You need to go to the Sphinx's tent now, there's a body in it."

"Show me," says Almara and both her and the worker head towards the tent.

The man Ivar glares at is clearly unnerved by being threatened by someone who is likely to be good in a fight. "Yeah, well, you can be sure we'll have the sheriff up here real soon and she'll be clearing all these thieving scum out of town and get our money back." After saying as much as he think he can get away with and not start a fight with you, the townsman gathers up his friends. Though they are obviously unhappy and continue to grumble about thieves, they will head back towards the town while sending the occasional glare back in the direction of the carnival.

Almara will move up past her guards who had been standing in the way of the townsfolk. "Thank you for convincing them to leave. If any of them had gotten hurt in a fight with us, it would have only made us look more guilty and stirred up more trouble with the town. I should have never allowed people to come here today. After so many had come up here upset about not being able to enjoy the carnival, I thought it would be okay as long as we kept our sphinx unavailable and hoped that they would see that we were only here to provide entertainment and meant no trouble. Clearly that outcome did not happen. I have no idea who was going around stealing money from people, but I can assure you that it was none of mine. Though you will find cutpurses and thieves in all crowds, never had we dealt with ones that were so brazen. Usually after a purse or two a thief will consider himself lucky to not be caught and satisfied with what he had. I don't know what is going on, but clearly the problem lies with the town and not with us."

There are five armed townsmen.

A couple of the townsmen turn to look at Selkyon. "They been taking place all over the carnival. Seems like no matter where you go, one of these thieving Varisians is there to take your purse. We mean to run these criminls out of town right after they give us our money back."

Pelipe, the townsperson will point out several people heading past your group as they hurry back to the town. "They all found their coin purses missing. Those Varisians are so sneaky that no one even saw it being done."

Pelipe, if you stop any of the ones that was pointed to, they will indeed confirm that their coin purses were stolen and that they did not see who did it.

Luckily no one has to rely on Ivar to find the source of the commotion, there is clearly a large group of people gathering in the midway. The carnival workers appear to be forming a line between a group of angry townsfolk and the rest of the carnival area. Even before you reach the group, you can hear the townsfolk yelling about the carnival workers being thieves and murderers and demanding they turn over their guilty right now and then leave their town.

Ivar is the first to hear sounds of raised voices coming from the direction of the carnival. Out of concern, you all pick up your pace as you head towards it and see roughly a dozen or so people of various ages moving quickly from the carnival are back to city. This likely causes some confusion on your part because Almara hadn't planned on opeing the carnival today.

Assuming you stop one of the townsfolk to ask what is going on, you'll get this reply: "Well, a bunch of us was upset the carnival wasn't opened. The kids were crying all morning because we had already promised them we'd be going and since no one from there was arrested, we figured everything was ok there after all. So by afternoon some of us had talked them into opening and Sister Woodmere took it upon herself to play peacemaker since she's always been the one to help us deal with problems not big enough to take before courts. But it was all a mistake, Barely before the first show was ended there was people already taling about their purses being cut and now there's a big fight just brewing to happen and we're just getting the kids out of there and back home before it happens."

After saying their bit, the townsperson will begin heading at a fast pace back to their homes. Any others you stop will tell a similar story.

I'll get a post up now. Had a busy weekend, but in a good way. We finally started having our Sunday TTRPG in person again. We're playing Warhammer Fantasy. Saturday was just a lot of cleaning up outside the house and yard. Plus using several cans of wasp spray because those things are really bad this year. followed by playing Cataan. I love that game.

After everything, it is now nearing evening. You remember from the morning that the carnival was going to remain closed today out of concern that there might be those who would cause trouble and they didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt. Though it is just closed to the locals, as their investigators, you all can come and go from the carnival as you please.

The sheriff sighs, "Begging likely won't be the only thing coming from his mouth as he comes off a drug like shiver. I best have the deputy put a couple of buckets in the cell with him."

"I can't actually say if illusion magic is easy or not since I am not capable of wielding it. Though if you do make a case for deception to cover the murder, that still may not sway people from accusing the carnival since they are also known for deceptions. Also, while Rogi may have been telling the truth about meeting up with others, there is currently no way to tell if the others were members of the carnival or not."

"I will be having the deputies re-question everyone along the street of the crime and look around the tannery grounds. I expect that you will all continue your own investigation as well. I will instruct my deputies that they are allowed to any questions you ask them about the witnesses they spoke to."

Sunshine this morning here, after random thunderstorms the past couple days. Stupidly humid still though, feels like sitting a sauna when you go outside.

Still waiting for the root canal, got to finish the antibiotics first and also the dentist is really backed up from where they were closed. Though I'm glad they are allowed to be open again, otherwise I'd have had to go the ER for the pain and for the antibiotics which is a pain in the ass to do. Even then, the antibiotics is all they would be able to do for me since they won't deal with dental stuff.

You are more than welcome to follow along. I just made a nice long post that will likely cause Pelipe some annoyance.

As you enter, Sheriff Feldane is clearly preparing to leave as she is putting away papers and other items from her desk. She will pause to listen to your story.

"First, let's take care of your Rogi." In a rather loud and strident voice, she calls out, "Arn!" The deputy from the front desk is quick to come into the office and the volume of the sheriff's voice returns to a normal level as she gives him an order to take Rogi and place him in a cell. Unless any of you prevent him from doing so, he will remove Rogi from the room and after a couple moments you can hear the sound of a metal door clanking shut.

The sheriff gives an approving nod as she hears the sound and then will resume conversation with you. "If Mrs. Walder confirms that he was caught while attempting to flee with stolen goods, he will at least be held on charges of robbery while the rest of this sorted out."

She will sit back down behind her desk and takes out an ink pen and paper and begins making some notes. "Now, let us move on to the rest of your claims. You say the this skulk named Rogi confessed to robbery with his friends who escaped while he was caught in a trap. Now, that part sounds true enough and anyone who has ever been drinking at the tavern when Walder was there drinking has heard him bragging about how secure his vault was. Except for that incident with his employee years ago, he's never reported any robberies, so I will assume his bragging was justified."

"This brings us to the first problem with your claim, Rogi's confession. The word of an obvious thief and drug addict doesn't hold much weight with any of the people around here. Usually if someone is desperate enough or dishonest enough to resort to robbery, they are certainly not above lying or even committing murder especially when under the effects of a drug."

Ther sheriff gives out sigh as she continues, "Next up, no one was found unconcious at the scene and no one reported anyone with a red beard sneaking around near the shop, but people did claim to see a sphinx fleeing the scene. Now, I will grant you that no one specifically asked if anyone had seen a man with a red beard because the culprit seemed obvious. So, for that part of the claim, I will have the neighbors and nearby shopowners questioned if they saw anyone fitting that description around the time of the crime. No one can ever claim myinvestigations aren't thorough."

"About this shiver drug, well, that has always been more of a big city problem that happens in places like Korvosa and not one I have ever seen here. Aside from the occasional person using naturally occuring plants or a certain mushroom, we don't have those types of problems. Now, I am not so naive as to think that there couldn't be a drug trade that has been successfully kept secret, but we have no proof of that at this time."

"Now, let's move on to the topic of the carnival. Which has travelled extensivly and has undoubtedly passed through many towns and even big cities. Carnival workers in general and Varisians specifically have a certain sort of reputation around here. The sort of reputation that makes people willing to believe that they usually up to no good, that they have no problem with fleecing money from the unwary and would have no problem stooping to robbery and from robbery it isn't too much to assume they would have a issue with resorting to murder."

"So, what we have right now is a drug addict caught red handed in the act of robbing a local business with the owner found dead in said place of business. This same addict and theif has made claims that are currently unsubsantiated by anyone else. Also this addict and theif happens to be something not common to this area. Something that wouldn't look out of place in that freak show that travels with the carnival. A freak show that is known a couple other specimans of races not common to this area. A carnival that has travelled through the larger cities that do have recorded problems with drugs like shiver. A carnival where most of the workers and entertainers are a people known to most as being too lazy to hold real jobs and who have no problem taking money from honest and hard working locals. A people who, in addition to being dishonest and thieves, are also rumored to travel to avoid being caught doing illeagal actions that could invovle murder."

Sheriff Feldane will raise her hands, palms out to you as a gesture to forstall any protests from your group. [b]"You must understand that I am not making any judgement about the validity of your claims. Everything you say could very well be the truth. However, even the truth needs proof in both a court of law and in the court of public opinion. Right now, we have a murdered man and people, local people, who claim to have seen his murderer flee the scene. We also have a non-local, non-human, theif and drug addict making claims that as of yet, no one can prove."

"Now, as I have said, I will send out my deputies in the morning to begin questioning everyone near the scene of the murder if anyone had seen a man with a red beard, not just during the morning of the the crime, but also at any time that week in case he had watched the place before planning a crime. While that is being done though, the investigation into the carnival will continue. Since you say that Rogi's accomplices escaped, I will assume they took their share of stolen goods with them. I will be giving orders to have the carnival grounds and wagons searched for any sign of those stolen goods in addition to looking for anyone other skulks who may be traveling with them. We will even look for any red bearded people among them, though I will say that red haired Varisians are as uncommon as skulks around here."

"As I stated before, my investigations are very thorough and I intend to explore all possibilies of who the murderer may be."

The deputy is still at his desk near the door when you arrive. "Back to see the Sheriff already? You're lucky she hasn't gone home for the evening yet. Remember to knock on the door this time."

He finally seems to pay enough attention to your group to finally realize that you have an extra person with you this time and seems taken aback by its appearance. "What is that and where is the rest of its clothes?"

Pelipe and Selkyon, you both are fairly certain that one would need actual alchemical lab equipment to produce a drug like that.

Rogi will still follow Pelipe. It hasn't dawned on him yet where you are taking him too.

Rogi will not answer any questions regarding the location of his tribe of the members of it. He also does not want to answer any more questions about the humans who give them the Shiver and will say that if they find out he talked he will not get anymore. If asked, Rogi will confirm that the vial contained Shiver and will look at it sadly because it is empty.

Rogi will also confirm that he is well enough to get home by himself and he is obviously eager to get there soon in the hopes that there will still be some Shiver left for him.

Selkyon, though everything once came from nature, the alchemical process used to produce the drug has altered the component beyond your ability to recognize.