They did some more investigation around Hommlet, eventually figuring out who was and who was not possibly on their side. They have nothing to particularly say that someone in the town is a bad guy, but they do feel that a few of them are liars. To flesh out their group, they ended up hiring Elmo, which will be pretty much their entire meat shield.
Follows:
The next morn, Birthmonth the 5th, Marketday, had the group up, dressed ,cleaned, prayed and studied, and then at the Common Room of the Welcome Wench for Breakfast. We discussed option for the day and wanted to tackle two of them: Meet with Jaroo the Druid and get his take on the situation around Hommlet and also go up to the north end of town and see the Miller and the millwheel – to get a sense if magic or demonic issues were a part of the situation.
Ophelia and Rowan would seek out Jaroo and the rest of the party would head north. It was 9 now, so we hoped to be back in 2 hours tops to pool our findings and then if pertinent, go and see the Village Elder, Auva. The Druid and Cleric left the Inn and went to the center area of town where a grove of tight trees and a path had been set up. Rowan felt pretty chill being in here. There was a mound of soil festooned with herbs, stones, and flowers, the path circled it, and then it ended at a low single story house.
A black bear was sleeping here. Curled up it snored softly at our approach before opening a single eye…and giving an inquisitive, “Hrrrff?” We announced ourselves and coming out of the house was a late 30’s something half elven man with one and a half legs, the shorter ending at the knee, hobbling out on a crutch. “Don’t mind, Snookies,” he said pointing to the bear, “At his age he prefers the sunlight and naps to problems. Jaroo Ashstaff of the Gnarley Wood, How may I help you?”
Turns out that Jaroo is not in agreement with Terjon regarding the strange phenomena that are occurring around Hommlet. Too many unexplained issues or just odd occurrences that don’t add up. The two of them had gotten too heated conversations about it again and again. He offered the other two a smoke of some pipe weed and then lit up and regaled the two friends about how he lost his leg.
There was an old temple ground not too far from here, somewhere to the north east. A moathouse sat before it before the land had flooded and whoever lived here abandoned the site. Burne and Rufus had been having some hired hands and workmen scavenge already worked stones from the area, using them in the foundation stones of not only the tower, but also the soon to be built keep.
Regarding any repository of evil that might be associated with Iuz would need a decent locale to center itself upon, and anyplace in Hommlet would be too obvious. So Jaroo believed that if there is a demonic entity nearby that was having an elemental effect on the town, the Moathouse was a viable locale. So he had set up a trip to go and explore it, however he was accosted by tremendous frogs; one of which literally tore his leg off! Fleeing for his life, he wrapped his stump in a tourniquet and made it to town the next day.
The Council along with Auva then decided that the road to and the area around the Moathouse was off limits. This means that Burne and Rufus would have to rely on quarried stones, instead of already finished and scavenged works. Jaroo feels that that location, besides being very dangerous, might hold the answer the party is looking for. He can no longer adventure but if the party did find themselves in need of healing, and could make it back, he would be able to help – as well as any poisons or diseases they might be afflicted with. He did say that if the group was able to find fresh aloe, he would help make some healing potions for the group. We thanked him and left.
Meanwhile Albert, Aredhel, and Pestle all went north. They made their way across the river, noted the presence of the Moneychanger, and then followed the road east from here until the loud noise of the turning Millwheel let them know they arrived. The Miller, Mytch, was working the great stones at this time, grinding grains while the water wheel turned slowly in the river.
He came down and we talked for a while. We did note that there were some symbols of the old gods present and he was not exactly well speaking of St Cuthbert. This led the group to be more confident in their questioning. A month or two ago, the water wheel slipped off its foundation and the townsfolk, especially Grove, worked on making bricks and stones, hoisting it back up and then building a new foundation housing for the center spoke. Mytch admitted this was not perfect and brick was not going to be the best long term solution. At some point the sluice and wheel would have to be dropped back to the main bedrock of the town.
We wanted to go and check it out so he led us past the big gears and to the wall. Advising us to be safe, the three friends spent time looking the site over. The stone in many places under the brick visibly looked melted. As if it had run. Mytch let the party know earlier that Terjon suspected that Sandstone was to blame and that was what the wheel had been built upon. But Albert and Pestle were convinced it was granite. And granite does not melt or run like that.
Once again magic might be to blame. Elemental. Too much presence of a demonic entity weakens the barrier between this world and the elemental planes. It seemed likely that Terjon was wrong. Albert did lose his balance at one point and had to be dragged back to safety or he would have fallen 12 feet to water and maybe been dragged under the wheel. That was when Albert let slip that he didn’t know how to swim which had Aredhel and Pestle question why the hell he was risking his life on the wall?
We gave Mytch a very soft overview of our findings, mindful of Auva's admonition not to upset the locals. From there we left and headed back to the Welcome Wench. The Cheese maker, a buxom woman named Martena was out selling her wares and Aredhel purchased two wedges of fresh cheddar, nibbling on it on the way.
Back at the Inn, Rowan and Ophelia were having an encounter with the local tradesman named Rannos Davi. He runs the Sword and Cheese Tradepost on the north end of town. He had a half dozen assorted fighting type men with him. They started off by having a deep conversation with Oslter Gundigroot on the party and what they were doing. He then pivoted to questioning the cleric and druid about their findings, nothing is going on here, and once they finish their investigation, they can safely go on and report back that everything is fine. He even offered to help sell us rations on our way out of town. The rest of the group came in in time to see Rannos and his men move on.
We ate lunch, tipped Ostler very well, and shared what we had learned. We were running out of commoner coin so we wanted to go to the Moneychanger first. So we stopped off and saw Melubb. His guard wouldn’t let more than one in at a time and the two guard dogs, big half mastiff beasts, growled to help drive that fact home. Pestle and then Aredhel did change coins, but only a few gold to silver, which had Melubb sigh at the low value of the transaction but still take his cut. Aredhel did make friends with the dogs though, eventually going through an entire wedge of the cheese! (still have 1 left!)
We talked about what to do and decided we wanted to talk to Auva and get his approval for us to go to the Moathouse and check it out. If we could find any definitive proof of foul magics or demonic presence, we could get closer to solving the problem.
We went to Auva where the Elder was meeting with the town Captain of the Militia, an older male in his 40’s named Peri. There was also a mountain of a man here, dark long hair, and so very muscular, eating dried beef from a bag. He was Elmo, Peri’s eldest son. Standing over 6’ 10 and easily 350 to 400, he was a veritable mountain. We talked about all we had learned and what we wanted to do. Auva was willing to call a council meeting on changing the law or allowing a dispensation for the group to go to the Moathouse. But we were going to be shy a fighter or two. We had 2 choices, Rannos Davi had a number of fighters available for hire at any time, or Peri could let some of his militia men go. Both had their pluses but the group did not want to trust Rannos.
Elmo did volunteer himself. His older brother, Otis, was a King’s man and should have some gear for him. “Get me a set of chainmail and honking big axe and I can deal with any problems for you.” He was willing to go with us for 1 gold per day and an equal share of any treasure found. He left, heading home to get what he needed and would meet us tonight at the Welcome wench because, “Any good adventure involves staying up late the night before getting shit faced and sleeping it off because who knows when you’ll get the chance to do that again!”
So an hour later the council convened in the Elder’s meeting room. Jaroo, Terjon, Peri, Oslter, Mytch, Burne, and Rufus. We then presented our desire to go and check out the moathouse. Lots of crosstalk and discussion followed. The most damning was that no one but Jaroo ever actually saw the giant frogs. No one, not before the attack or after. Burne blamed the druid for being high as a kite and losing his footing on the uneven ground or dropping into a hole. He was a solid no. Terjon was also against it. The site was off limits for everyone’s safety and we should not cause any problems.
He was willing to vote yes if the group committed to 50% of anything found goes to the Church of St. Cuthbert. And if that was not palatable, Allow Terjon to place one of his Adherents in with the party to help them out and act as an observer. We respectfully declined.
Mytch was all for us, commenting that the group was pretty respectful. Ostler had been treated well by us and he gave the green light. Jaroo felt it was worth it for us to go and look. Peri wanted all aspects checked out so was voting neutral – but yeah, go ahead. As for Rufus? He and Ophelia had been chatting and laughing most of the time and with her flirting with the fighting man, when pressed for an answer, he defied Burne and on seeing Ophelia wink at him and smile, said, “Yeah! Let them go look! Great idea!”
On finding out Elmo was going, Burne was pretty upset, feeling that Peri had a ulterior motive to letting it happen, but with 5 votes yes and 2 no – Auva allowed the group the chance to go to the Moathouse and investigate it for strange goings on and possible demonic influences.
We went back to the Welcome Wench and crank and laughed with Elmo. He was larger than life, liked by everyone, and Pestle noted he was willing to open his pouch often; paying for more than his share of drink. So much so that he pretty much spent whatever earnings he would make the next day and then some. We rested and on Birthmonth the 6th, got up early, ate breakfast, and were on our way by 8:30.
Scrub, thorn, and thistle barred our way. The track there was barely a winding path, overgrown and cluttered. In places it was just mud. Tall plants choked both sides and it was 3 hours later that we arrived. North of here was the ruins of the moathouse. A stinking bog surrounded it, vegetation appeared pale and sickly. A busted drawbridge seemed to cross the crumbling embankment and the entire place was just unsafe looking.
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