The party finished the sweep of the building and headed outside. They made it about thirty paces away from the building when an icy chill ran down their spines and they turned back to the building. All except Jazier, who was used to feelings like that and paid no heed to it.
In the windows of the building, they spotted ghostly figures in the windows – the spirits of those who had died in the building. Lucky Days shivered. “P-p-pirate ghosts!” she gasped. Qumeel looked at her, confused about the non-sequitur.
Gwen made a sign warding against evil. She wasn’t nearly as superstitious as most of the town, but she was seeing living – well, not LIVING – ghosts right there. Of course it scared her. Valbrand, noting the girl’s fear, saw another chance to try to impress her. “You cannot show fear when dealing with ghosts,” he boasted. He grinned and struck his fist to his chest in salute to the dead. The ghosts mostly dispersed, save for one, that of a child, who returned the gesture with his own grin.
Up ahead of the group, Jazier realized he was alone. He stopped and turned. “Are you guys coming?” he asked.
Lucky Days breathed a sigh of relief. “You know, I don’t think those were pirates after all,” she said to Qumeel.
“I believe you are correct,” the cleric answered with a knowing smile. “Come, let us keep moving. It is late.”
They continued on towards the town proper, and Othdan whined the entire way. He wanted to go home to see his mother. After putting up with it for what felt like an eternity, Gwen snapped. “You want to go home? FINE.” She spotted another guard, Hubert, and motioned him over.
“You look like hell,” he said.
Valbrand barked out a laugh. “You should see the guy Kermit killed,” he said.
“I think that was a girl,” Lucky Days pointed out.
“It was a troll. Male or female does not matter,” Valbrand argued. Kermit just shrugged.
Hubert ignored them. “What did you need?” he asked Gwen.
“We found Othdan trapped beneath the Plague House,” she said. “Can you see to it that he makes it home safely while we report to Halgra?”
He made a sign against evil, but nodded. “I can do that. Make sure you go wash the curse of that place off of you. Flowing water does wonders on that kind of nastiness. Maybe add some salt for good measure.”
“After I talk to Halgra,” Gwen said. “She needs to know what we found.”
“Fair enough. Come along, Othdan, let’s get you home to your mother.”
They continued on, making their way to Halgra’s home, where she and Jagrin would most likely be discussing everything that had happened within the confines of the woman’s spacious office. At the door, they found Douglas and Brollerth keeping watch. Or, at least, as close to that as the two could manage.
Douglas was busy looking at himself in the reflection of his blade while Brollerth was squishing ants between his fingers and declaring himself their “angry and vengeful god”. They barely made note of the arriving party.
“Aren’t you going to ask why we’re here?” Gwen asked.
“Like, we were told not to let anyone through unless they were with the watch. You’re a member of the watch and they’re with you, so you can go through or something,” Brollerth answered, picking up another ant. It bit futilely at his leather glove.
Gwen sighed. “Right,” she said, walking past them.
They entered the building and headed towards Halgra’s office. As they approached, they began hearing the sounds of an argument. “I’m tired of waiting!” Jagrin shouted. “We should get this over with! He’s obviously guilty. He and Katrezra used the goblins as a distraction!”
“Stand down!” Halgra barked. “I’ll make my decision once your niece returns from her investigation. We cannot allow this matter to sow discord in the town. We need evidence.”
The shouting caused Gwen to hesitate. They sounded really angry. She had never been very good at dealing with shouting people. She fretted a bit. Should they knock? Maybe go back and have Brollerth come announce their arrival?
Valbrand noticed her hesitation and decided to take matters into his own hands. He kicked the door open and walked in. “We have returned victorious!” he roared jovially, tossing the unconscious man on the table. The man groaned in pain. “Glenn, bring your sack as well!”
Gwen, mortified, followed after and found quite the sight. Halgra was standing, mouth agape, while Jagrin was backed up, sword in hand ready to attack what his sleep deprived brain considered a threat. And all around the room, paintings and decorative weapons had fallen from the walls when Valbrand had kicked the door.
“I don’t think tea is going to help fix this,” Kermit observed upon entering the room.
Glenn set the sack on the desk alongside the unconscious man. Halgra looked from one to the next, finally settling on Gwen. “Explain. Now,” she said, glaring.
“Um. Hi,” Gwen managed. “So, uh, we found some people below the Plague House plotting something. One was a troll, I think. Kermit kinda mangled that one beyond recognition. And we also found a body. I think they were digging for something. You should question the unconscious guy.”
Halgra gave her a pained look. “And you just decided to throw them on my desk?”
Gwen floundered. “I-I didn’t decide anything,” she said, gesturing to Valbrand and Glenn.
Jagrin regained his senses and lowered his sword. Then he grabbed Gwen by the ear and began chewing her out for “not controlling this pack of wild animals”. The girl was on the verge of tears as it went on.
Jazier noted the condition of the room and sighed. “They’re probably going to make me clean this up,” he said in a resigned tone as he began picking the decorations off the floor and putting them back on the wall.
Halgra pinched the bridge of her nose to fight back the headache that was rapidly coming. “That’s the last time I trust Douglas and Brollerth with anything. I’d fire them if I didn’t need every able body on the wall.”
“I’m pretty sure Mister Brollerth would like that,” Lucky Days said. “Qumeel tells me he likes fire.”
Halgra gave her blank look, then decided not to respond to that. “Lucky Days, please step into the hallway and take Kermit, Valbrand and Glenn with you.”
“Okay, Chief Chief!” Lucky Days said cheerfully.
As they left, Halgra turned to Jazier, but noticed that he was cleaning and decided against ordering him outside as well. Any work he did was work she wouldn’t have to worry about later. She turned instead to Qumeel. “Please gather Brollerth and Douglas for me?” she asked.
“Of course,” the cleric answered, leaving immediately.
Finished with his lecture, Jagrin inspected the half orc on the table. “He’s still alive,” he noted. “But he looks like he got mauled by a bear.”
“Worse,” Valbrand said from behind the cracked open door. “A frog.”
Before anyone could respond, Qumeel ushered in the two guardsmen. “Take this man and put him in a cell,” Halgra told them. “Remain there until you are given other orders.”
“Like, okay,” Brollerth said. “Douglas, put away your knife and get his feet.”
“But, I’m just so beautiful,” Douglas complained as he complied. The two moved surprisingly quickly, as if they were used to carrying things like that.
“Please shut the door,” Halgra told Qumeel. “What can you tell us about all of this?” she asked the cleric, noting that Gwen looked too upset to answer at the moment.
“The corpse appears to be wearing the robes of an orcish tribal god. We also found a lot of onyx on him, which suggests the possibility of necromancy. Valbrand suggests that perhaps they were going to raise corpses to continue their digging.”
“Were you able to hear anything before confronting the conspirators?” she asked.
The cleric shook his head. “Lucky Days heard the sound of talking and sprinted off to investigate. By the time I caught up, Kermit was already in the process of disemboweling the troll. They are a spirited bunch, when it comes to combat.”
“I see,” Halgra said.
“What of my son?” Jagrin asked, wild eyed. “Did you find any evidence of his killer?”
Gwen wiped away a tear and sniffed. “We found this,” she said, pulling the hope knife from her belt. “I’m pretty sure it was Rodrik’s. It suggests that the hope knife we found on him was planted.”
“Which means he didn’t kill himself!” Jagrin said, triumphantly. “I knew my son wasn’t a coward!” His expression went cold. “But that means his killer is still here somewhere. We will determine who did it and I will cut him into so many pieces no necromancer could animate him.”
Jazier stopped cleaning for a moment and was about to point out that a necromancer could probably animate the pieces separately, but thought better of interjecting and instead began using magic to get a wine stain out of the rug underneath the desk.
Jagrin squeezed Gwen’s shoulder. “You did good,” he said softly. “Your mother would be proud.” He then marched out of the office, ignoring Halgra’s attempts to stop him.
Halgra gave up on that and called in the people waiting in the hallway. “And that’s when I said to the shopkeeper, ‘But I don’t have any pants,’” Kermit said as they walked into the room.
Lucky Days gasped. “That makes so much sense!” she exclaimed.
Halgra decided she did not want to know what they were discussing and instead focused on what was relevant. “Lucky Days, Qumeel tells me that you were the first person into the room with the troll and half orc. Did you hear anything relevant?”
“Sorry, Chief Chief. I ran in to ask what they were talking about and they attacked me. Othdan seemed pretty scared of whoever was in there, though, so I had Sakura-chan out and was ready to defend myself.”
Halgra blinked. “Othdan? You found him?”
“Yes. He was locked in a room that we got into by killing a big blob of jelly. Well, that was mostly Kermit. But you know, it made gross squishy sounds and I didn’t want to touch it.”
“That boy’s mother has been bugging me for three days to find him.” She looked at Gwen. “You didn’t think to bring him with you in case he had relevant information?”
Gwen’s face fell. “But… he kept whining about wanting to go to his mother… and then there were the ghosts… and Rodrik…” The stress was clearly getting to the girl. Tears were actually welling up in her eyes as she spoke.
“You should have brought him with you. There are six of you.”
“Seven,” Jazier corrected quietly as he lifted Glenn’s foot to clean under it.
“But… should we have dragged him kicking and screaming with us?”
“As long as no one slammed him on my desk, yes!”
Gwen looked at the group around her. “There’s no way I can promise that wouldn’t have happened!”
“We left him with young Hubert,” Qumeel interjected, not wanting the argument to continue. “I am certain that he is safely with his mother and unharmed.”
Halgra sighed. “This is such a mess. The assassin you captured swears Katrezra hired him. Katrezra hid because he’s certain he’d be blamed, though he professes his innocence. Jagrin is certain Katrezra had a hand in it.” She was pacing as she ranted. She stopped and marched up to Valbrand. “And you! Apparently you’re going to be a father!” she shouted.
Valbrand had no idea what she was talking about. He looked over to Kermit, who just shrugged in answer.
Halgra took a breath. “And to make matters more complicated, now we have crazed goblins who seem to be obsessed with killing the most suspicious man I’ve ever met. A man who keeps trying to escape from prison, I might add.”
“Oh, he’ll definitely succeed,” Kermit said.
Valbrand laughed. “If you keep catching him, he’s trying to tell you that he’s insulted by the disrespect you’ve shown him by your lackluster prison arrangements.”
“Of course he is,” Halgra said with another sigh. She turned to Qumeel. “I’m sorry for disregarding you earlier. I’ve had a lot on my plate. You were trying to tell me something?” Qumeel explained his vision, emphasizing his belief that it was a warning from Ragathiel. “No offense, but I really hope you’re wrong and this was nothing but a dream you had while unconscious.”
“The faithful of Ng teach that one must sleep to dream,” Kermit said. “If he was unconscious, then it could not have been a dream, so it probably was a true vision.”
“Right,” Halgra said. “Okay. I have a couple more things I need you to do. I need a few of you to take this corpse to the sanctuary for me.” Valbrand immediately thought of the beautiful young cleric he had laid with and grinned as he began raising his hand to volunteer. Perhaps she had calmed down from whatever had upset her and would be amenable to spending more time with him. “NOT YOU,” Halgra snapped.
Valbrand shrugged. “That’s fine, I guess. I’ll go check in on Rodd Rigez then.”
“Ooh! I want to go check in with Coach!” Lucky Days agreed.
“Glenn and I will go to the Sanctuary,” Kermit volunteered. Glenn’s shoulders slumped in defeat, but he didn’t argue.
Jazier considered the two groups and their destinations. He would be safer at a house of worship than a prison, and if they were attacked, he definitely wanted Kermit nearby to kill whatever attacked them. “I’ll go with them,” he volunteered.
“I shall accompany them as well,” Qumeel said as Glenn picked up the corpse. Halgra nodded as the four of them left.
“I’ll go with Valbrand and Lucky Days,” Gwen said. “I’ll make sure to have someone get Othdan for you as well.”
“Thanks,” Halgra said. “And Gwen, your uncle’s right. You did a good job.”
The others left and Halgra was alone in her office. She looked around, startled. “Wait. Was the rug always that color?” she asked. It had been in her office since before she had come there, and it had always been a dingy brown. But now it was white. That caused her to look around and notice that Jazier had cleaned EVERYTHING in that short time. “He does good work,” she mused.
At the Sanctuary, they found the main temple empty, but could hear something in the room where the dead were prepared for their final rest. It sounded like a woman crying. Concerned, Qumeel knocked on the door. “Priestess, are you in there? We’ve come with a corpse we found and were hoping you could take a look at it.”
The crying stopped and there was the sound of someone sniffing to fight back tears. “Please, come in,” Tyari Varvatos said, her voice wavering slightly.
The young woman knew Qumeel, had met Jazier as well, but she was not prepared for the sight of Glenn as he walked in wearing a pelican suit and carrying a sack. She gawked at the sight, and completely missed Kermit’s arrival. In fact, the body was already laid out on a table before she noticed the grippli, and only did so after he spoke. “We are sorry for bothering you so late,” he said.
She jumped at the unexpected voice. “It’s fine,” she said. “Tragedy knows no hour. Tell me, where did you find this body? It looks to have been dead for some time.”
“In the Plague House,” Qumeel said.
“Which was devoid of any plague, by the way,” Jazier interjected, his voice sounding almost bitter at the misnomer. He seemed offended that someone would call a place that without any disease being present.
Tyari either didn’t hear him or didn’t think to respond. Instead, the thought of the Plague House caused her to think of those who had perished there. Tears welled up in her eyes. “So many people died there,” she sobbed. “Iomedae! Did you forsake them?” She whispered then, “Have you forsaken me? Please, forgive me for my indiscretions! Tell me what I can do to earn penance!”
Qumeel took in the sight of the young woman’s distress and realized something. It was a leap, but the evidence pointed to it. He put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Think of this as a gift,” he said. “He seems to be a fine young man. Perhaps your goddess sent him to bestow this gift upon you, a new soul to raise in her service?”
Tyari sniffed and looked up at him. “Thank you, though I fear my sister will not see it that way.” She swallowed, trying to regain composure. “Please, tell me more about this body.”
“We found evidence that either he or someone else who was down there was a necromancer,” Qumeel said. “Do you know anything that might be relevant to that and tell us why he was down there?”
Tyari considered it. “Well, there might be one thing. Centuries ago, a giant known as Thaddius the Death Seeker lived near here. He raised armies of the dead as fodder against his enemies. But I doubt this is relevant to the dead man, as this corpse appears fresh, no more than a couple weeks old, and Thaddius has been long dead.”
“That is not always dead which can eternal lie,” Jazier said absentmindedly as he studied a fresco of the goddess Iomedae, barely paying attention to the conversation.
“Right,” Tyari said warily. “I’ll look into what I can. Perhaps there is some local lore I haven’t heard yet that might shed light. However, I fear that it will be for naught, as the people of Trunau bury the past to make it seem more like progress is being made.”
“Thank you, priestess,” Qumeel said. “We should probably get going, but let us know if you find anything. And be careful. Ragathiel warns that danger may be looming for the town.”
“I will,” she said. She then called out as they began to leave. “Wait!”
“Yes?”
“D-Did Valbrand come with you?” she asked timidly.
“I’m sorry,” Qumeel said. “He wanted to come, but Chief Defender Halgra forbade it.”
“Oh, I see,” she said, tearing up again.
Kermit smiled at her. “Buck up. If life were easy, it wouldn’t be difficult,” he said sagely. “Come along, Glenn.” Jazier just scowled at him, trying to make sense of the grippli’s words as he followed him out of the temple.
As the others approached the prison, the sound of shrieking grew louder and louder. “That sounds like it would get really annoying,” Lucky Days commented.
“Rodd probably doesn’t mind,” Valbrand commented. “He’s good at ignoring distractions.”
“That’s a lot of focus,” Lucky Days marveled. “I wonder if I’ll ever be able to focus like that. It would help me compete even better.”
“I’m sure Rodd can give you pointers.”
“I’ll ask him later,” the girl said.
They entered the jail to find almost every cell filled. The goblins – who had been put in separate cells – were shrieking and trying to get out so they could attack Rodd Rigez, who, for his part, was smiling beatifically as he hung from the ceiling. He was upside down and was wrapped from head to toe in rope, swinging gently and humming to himself.
Douglas and Brollerth were trying desperately to get the goblins to quiet down. It was so bad that Douglas couldn’t even focus at looking at himself. They looked desperately at Gwen to save them from the noise, so she obliged them. “You two go find Hubert and have him bring Othdan to Halgra,” she said. “Then come back here.”
It was a momentary reprieve, but they were grateful for even that and rushed off without argument. Valbrand walked over, past the cell holding the assassin who was nursing an obvious headache, and tossed a bottle of alcohol to the suspended Rodd Rigez.
Rodd Rigez twisted slightly, and there was a loud pop – it could be heard over the shrieking goblins – as he dislocated his shoulder and freed himself from the rope enough to catch the bottle. He opened it and took a swig – one handed and still upside down – then let it drop gently to the floor before putting his arm back into the rope and popping his joint back into place.
“Appreciate it,” the suspended man said to Valbrand. “I was getting a bit thirsty.”
Valbrand grinned. “I thought you might be.”
Lucky Days walked over towards Rodd Rigez, but as she passed the shrieking Tippi, the goblin stopped for a moment and sniffed, looking offended. Lucky Days wasn’t sure why, so she stopped to see what was going on. Meanwhile, Valbrand walked over and grabbed the male goblin by the head. He then tried to pull back and slam the creature’s skull into the bars to quiet it, but his arm got stuck.
“That’s why I don’t build my muscles up,” Rodd Rigez said with a laugh as the goblin began trying to chew on Valbrand’s mailed arm.
It began to hurt as the goblin managed to bite into the metal, so Valbrand activated his armband, freezing the goblin solid. He then yanked hard, freeing himself and simultaneously smacking the goblin’s head against the bars. Several of the creature’s teeth came out and remained in the large man’s arm as the goblin collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Valbrand pulled the teeth free and used a bit of magic to heal his wounds. “Finally,” the assassin said. “It’s finally quiet.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” Rodd Rigez said. “But if it was bothering you, why didn’t you break free? This jail is laughably insecure.”
“Waiting on backup.”
“Oh? Interesting.”
“Yeah, someone will come pay my bail.”
“You’re accused of attempted murder, right? I don’t think anyone’s gonna get you out by paying a fine.”
Meanwhile, Tippi and Lucky Days were sizing each other up. “What’s your problem?” the girl asked the goblin.
“You smell like a horse,” the goblin said angrily.
“I’m a horse girl.”
“Horses are bad no good monsters and should all die.”
Angrily, Lucky Days smacked the goblin with the butt of Sakura-chan. The goblin’s eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. Lucky Days snorted. “Don’t like horses? How rude.”
Gwen just stared in shock at the entire scene, unsure of what to do. At the very least, she decided not to chastise the two for striking the goblins. It was probably for the best. Maybe it would be better to put some kind of visual barrier between them and the suspended man.
As she contemplated it, the quiet figure in the far cell called her name. “Gwethlantithwen?” he asked. “Is that you?”
She walked over to the cell and stood before the old half-orc. “Katrezra,” she said.
“How are you?” he asked, his tone concerned. “You look like you’ve come from a long fought battle.”
“I’m okay,” she said. She wasn’t sure that was true, but she knew she would be, given time.
“That’s good to hear. I’m scared,” the old man admitted. “I’ve tried to be as compliant as possible, so that Halgra and Jagrin will realize that I’m innocent, but that man over there keeps insisting it was I who hired them. I swear to you, I’ve never seen that man in my life.”
He seemed sincere, but the girl didn’t know what to believe. “We’ll see what information we can get out of the new prisoner,” she said. “If you’re lucky, new information will prove your innocence.” She wasn’t ready to commit to believing him, but she had enough compassion to hope that the old half-orc truly was innocent. He had been a friend of Rodrik’s and she didn’t want to believe that her cousin had been foolish enough to trust someone who would betray him.
“Who is he?” the old man asked.
“We found him underneath the Plague House, meeting with a troll. There was evidence that they or someone else was digging down there.”
“What could they hope to find down there?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Jazier and Valbrand think they were planning to use undead to continue their digging though.”
“Jazier?” the old man asked, saddened at the mention. “That poor man bears a heavy burden. I hope that he finds what he seeks and can at last know peace from the dark cloud hanging over him.”
Gwen blinked at the words. He seemed absolutely genuine. He truly felt bad for the strange wizard. But that didn’t make sense. It just truly made no sense at all for him to care about Jazier. But it was clear he did. If Katrezra really was the mastermind, then why would he have hired assassins to kill Jazier?
The girl hadn’t wanted to believe that the old half-orc had been the culprit, for Rodrik’s sake, but deep down she considered it a strong possibility. He had run, after all. Now? She wasn’t so sure.
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