I had gotten to the point that I was not going to do write ups anymore. Time constraints was the biggest contributor to this and I had quietly let them die off. But the group really appealed to me and asked me to restart them - so after 4 or so months I started them up again - this is the last write up before I stopped. Thanks for the patience and reading!
Follows:
With some time to kill, we figured we would go to the Horse and Hound, the inn and tavern that Bethen was at when we got killed. Get a lay of the land and feel of the crime scene. Before that we wandered over to Tennet’s place, the tenement home he was staying in. A 3 story structure, the landlord was a chatty fellow named, Menz. Tennet was a good tenant for the most part but was having a hard time making rent. He took in a roommate, a half-ogre woman named Brannade and the two of them were always half a day away from being poor. But they were not only friends but a couple as well.
As for Brannade, she was there when Tennet died and moved out shortly afterwards. She came into some coins, paid off her debts, and then took some of their shared furnishings and left. He doesn’t know where she moved off to for sure but he knows it was somewhere else in Grymeria.
At the Horse and Hound we looked about. There was indeed a 2nd smaller door from the privies near the alley that was less lit. But we could see that someone standing outside could look through the transom windows. With the alley dark and the privies lit, anyone outside would be unseen. We were still on the idea that Bethen was killed and then tossed into the street.
Since the death, Henilla, the proprietor of the Horse and Hound, had made some changes and now the side door is monitored and a bell is attached to it to alert anyone within that it was been opened. The guard there inspired us to move on. We went in and chatted with the locals and wenches. Bethen was well liked and worked for the Vitalia Clay Lorry Company as a loader and driver. He had a partner named Ergan, an animate half-ogre. They had been a team for some time. And when Bethen died, Ergan left that night and hasn’t been seen since. The locals miss both of them.
Hmm. Another Half-Ogre. Not at all a common race normally and less so here in Grymeria. And Lord Gatraise really wanted Gugg and/or any other half-ogre on his staff. The tentative theory was that either or both of these two, Brennade and Ergan, were involved in the deaths – it was just too pat. In our further questioning, we did learn that Ergan did quit his job as a driver for the Vitalia Clay Lorry Company, and emigrated to the far north western town of Somber; a small locale of barely 1,200 citizens on the border of Freemantle.
We discussed maybe splitting the party, half of them going to Somber to poke around, and the others heading off to the Hall of Records and seeing the other Lord who was looking to purchase the deceased bodies against Lord Gatraise – Lord Mergonius.
While all this was happening, the minstrel who was playing the concertina, tried to strike up a friendly “plus” conversation with Dizzy who after some time realized what was the ham handed attempt to make friends with him, got up and flat out walked away.
We went outside and met up with Dizzy after bidding our farewell to Henilla and made a trip back to the Heart of Vitalia. We decided to split up with Dizzy, Gryg, and Gugg going off to Somber early in the AM (3 hours walk at least), and the rest of the party (Brading, Thalin, Godrick, and Captain Asher) taking care of the situation here. We would then reconnect in the afternoon long before sunset and decide what to do next. So we slept and on the 28th @ 5:45 in the AM half the party left Vitalia out of the west gate and headed off, the road cutting cleanly through the Rises and the Grains.
By 8:30 they arrived at Somber without issue. It was a border town, maybe ¼ a mile from the barrier between Grymeria and Freemantle. Surrounded by a wooden palisade 15’ tall and a raised earthen berm, we entered without issue and were directed to the Magistrate, Fedoger. Fedoger was a half-oc, not an animate, a bit going to pot, but was very helpful. He was pleased that the adventuring party, already famous, had deigned to visit his town.
We talked about what they do. Most of their works were involved with imports and exports with Freemantle – but more importantly – handling the 7 active gold mines currently operating in the Rises – a section of low mountains just northeast of town. He showed us a map that had just about 100 pins in it – 12 red, 7 blue, and 71 yellow. The red were locations of gold mines that had been played out, the blue were mines currently under operations, and the other 71 were prospected sites of potential mines that were not being used yet.
This helped explain the gold standard being used in Grymeria. We then turned the conversation to Ergan and maybe Brannade? Yep – sure enough, both of them were here. They operated one of the delivery systems that ran supplies and goods back and forth from the various mines. They moved out here, Ergan had his own cart, and they purchased an old guard house and stables on the north end of town. Really?
We thanked Fedoger and went off to go talk to Brannade and Ergan. The thought was that Gugg would spearhead the conversation – being a half-ogre. And when we had a chance, would turn the conversation to the murders of the two men. At which time Dizzy would have a mind read spell at the ready and try to get a bead on what the two of them really knew. They would not be able to use the information legally, but it would let them know what was going on.
Most of the plan went fine in the beginning. Gugg presented himself as a wandering cleric looking to minister to the locals and maybe open a chapterhouse in the area. Brennade was willing to listen and Ergan, the animate, was just looking, when he got upset that Gryg and Dizzy were on the property and near his Lorry. “GETY AWAY!” he roared, chasing them off the property while Brennade wanted this to be over. She tried to end the conversation when Gugg brought up Vitalia and they had recently come from there. She got worried and Dizzy was able to tell that she was very upset and wanted some answers – and maybe someone would have to die.
We left and they watched us as we went down the street – eventually getting to a point where we could see the house but they could not see us. We hoped they would leave so we could sneak in and look around. But Ergan eventually left the house and was stomping down the main road in OUR direction. A fast Hide from Undead, had the party hidden long enough to see Ergan head to the Magistrate’s office where he was gone a short while and then stomped back home – a younger man with a closed box and wearing the outfit a low level bureaucrat following. What was going on? They went to the house and were gone for a while before the functionary left and was heading back to the Magistrate's office.
They followed, asked what was going on, and was told they had requested a sending head and send a message to someone. Who? Not at liberty to say. Where were they? Not at liberty to say. What was the message? Not at liberty to say. We followed him back to Fedoger and managed to convince the Magistrate that we were on Adventurer business as well as OCC Mide – and we got the wind that the message was sent to A Lord Gatraise in Vitalia and that they wanted to know how to proceed and that if need be – would return to Vitalia if summoned.
We went back to keep watch and figured till 1 PM at the latest before we would head back on our own.
As for the other half of the party – they had gone to the Office of Records and looked over a few things, but with Adjunct Rawanis’ help to clear the red tape – they were able to look over the last will and testaments that both men had on file. Bethen’s was pretty standard, he did ask not to be raised about a year ago and noted it in his file, but that was about it. Tennet’s a bit different – he had a mutual living will with Brannade for the last 3 years and then a few weeks before he died, changed his will to “no desire to be raised”. Also, the paper wasn’t signed here at the hall of records – but was updated at the local Constabulary office. Really? And who took that information in? Once again, Constable Clamance’s name was on this. Godrick who had a forgery background – did not trust the signature and felt there was something off about it – like a copy from somewhere else.
We then went to the Constabulary office and talked to Captain Ariassant. We were able to look over various papers during that time and it seems that Tennet made a complaint that he was being followed or harassed and the Constable Clamence took that information down. And the signature? Was an exact match according to Godrick, for the one at the Hall of Records. Ok – this was closer but still not a smoking gun. We needed to eventually meet Clamance and shake him to see if we could coax a confession from him.
At 1 PM the other group left Somber and was heading home, no longer wanting to wait and not seeing either Brannade or Ergan leave.
The other party then went to Lord Mergonius. From the outside his place was less macabre than Lord Gatraise – but inside it was obvious – this was the home of some undead lord. All zombies and ghouls within. Fountain of blood. Real nice. And Mergonius himself? He was a Vampire. But he was approachable and was angered with Gatraise. He had only learned of the potentially huge gold mine after Gatraise purchased the first dead body at the auction – Bethen. It was obvious he wanted to circumvent any of the filing or sharing fees regarding the prospecting site – getting almost the entire profit from it. But he did not know enough of the situation until Tennet’s body was purchased.
If they could help disrupt the situation, Mergonius would be happy to partner with Gatraise in this endeavor. It wouldn’t be the first time the Vampire Lord and the Lich Lord were at odds with one another. Excuse me? Lich?
Yep – Lord Gatraise is a lich.
Just…great. We thanked Lord Mergonius who we exacted some commitment that if the Basketweaver could get out from under his dept, the Vampire Lord would make a sizable weaving purchase on commission from him. We then went to the gates, met up with the rest of the party, shared all we learned, and went to tell the increasingly worried Goliene that we were getting close to solving his dilemma. The Bastketweaver was hopeful as there was a bit over 2 days to go.
We figured that we would need to stay OUT of the Lich lord’s radar – so the hope was to lean heavily on Clamance and get him to crack as well as be the architect of it all – and have him be the figure that Lord Gatraise would be wroth at. We went to Captain Ariassant and got a description of Constable Clamence, confirmed with him that we would do all we could to wrap this up and get actual proof instead of conjecture against his Constable. In thanks and expectation of the problems to come, he deputized both Godrick and Thalin – being both were recognized mages and should an unauthorized Sanction occur –the two of them should be able to speak for the Captain and keep the Inquisitors off their back for a short while.
It was a bit after 6:30 in Birthmonth the 28th and we were going to go to Clamance’s beat area (he works from 3 to 11 PM) and see if we could find him and get him to talk.
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