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Aphonion Tales: Agents of Canberry (edited transcripts, posts Thursdays, updated 3/17/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8961404" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 3 (January 1, 2023)</p><p></p><p>4 End Year</p><p>They are in the village of Sylfezky, and guests of Sir Adalby Sylfezky. They are all having an oatmeal breakfast with the knight.</p><p></p><p>"What we face, friends, is that this man is accused of killing his sister-in-law."</p><p></p><p>"Yikes."</p><p></p><p>"That's not good."</p><p></p><p>"The law agrees with you. I wield a greatsword with alacrity. I defend my people. I will guide them. But I don't know how to figure out whether someone committed a crime or they're being framed. I'm hoping that the emissaries who were sent," he gestures at all of them with his oatmeal spoon, "are more knowledgeable on this."</p><p></p><p>Riverwood says, "Maybe one of us. I don't think it's me."</p><p></p><p>Aedrin has a more practical question. "Sir knight. Just so I'm clear on this. Are you wanting us to find out what actually happened, or is there some conclusion that you're wanting us to find out? We can probably do either, but I'd like to know which job I'm being asked to do."</p><p></p><p>"Find out what actually happened! The problem is that the people want this handled fast. They think they know who did it, they want him hanged. I can probably delay the trial until the end of the day, but not much longer without having to kill to protect him, and I don't want to kill my own people."</p><p></p><p>"That makes sense," responds Riverwood.</p><p></p><p>"Because the people are convinced he did it, but I am somewhat less convinced. For an odd reason... There seems to be no reason for him to have done it. But then again, as I said, I know nothing about how to investigate these things. This is not part of my training, nor my life."</p><p></p><p>"I've been involved in more than a few investigations, though usually not on this side," says Aedrin. "So I'm sure we can figure things out."</p><p></p><p>"Well, at least we can try."</p><p></p><p>"Why do they think he did it?" asks Grolnok.</p><p></p><p>"They lived in the same cabin. Well, I say cabin, but most of them are really huts. But the victim lived in a cabin with her sister and her sister's husband, and so when she was found dead in the cabin, most people assumed her sister's husband must have done it. He and his wife claim that he had gone to the fields to work. I can't find anyone who saw him there, but given the amount of land we're trying to work with the few people we have, he could easily have been out working and unseen by any. But just the same, if there was some problem in the relationship between the sister and the husband, or the sister and the wife, none might have seen it."</p><p></p><p>"But the wife does not accuse him--she stands by her husband?"</p><p></p><p>"Aye, she does."</p><p></p><p>"Is there anyone else who might have been interested in killing her?"</p><p></p><p>"I have one, but he's considered an upstanding man of the village."</p><p></p><p>"Is he, now?" Aedrin says, immediately suspicious of him.</p><p></p><p>"I suspect that the man whose courtship she refused recently. He is a widower who lost his wife at the Intaking on the Day of the Dead. He may be responsible. He is a jealous and angry man--has been ever since I came here, but I have no evidence whatsoever that he was even near the cottage."</p><p></p><p>"Have you attempted questioning him?" asks Riverwood.</p><p></p><p>"Of course! I said, 'did you kill this woman?' And he said, 'No.'"</p><p></p><p>"That's not how you question someone. If you just ask, 'Did you kill this woman?' Obviously, he's going to answer 'No,' even if he did do it."</p><p></p><p>"But I am a lyan," he says. "We do not have a great deal of subtlety." Lyans are holy warriors dedicated to the principle of Law--like paladins, but without the focus on Good as well.</p><p></p><p>"Of Glordiadel?"</p><p></p><p>"Of course! You didn't know He had some, did you? There are not many, but some. And once upon a time, I was more congruent with the faith that I belonged to, for I was at one time a lyan of Berta."</p><p></p><p>"Isn't Berta a goddess of Chaos?"</p><p></p><p>"Of course! And what could be more chaotic than for a Goddess of Chaos to be served by a lyan?"</p><p></p><p>They have no answer for that, though they are befuddled.</p><p></p><p>"Can you detect chaos, as paladins detect evil? Did the man you suspect have the mark of chaos upon him?"</p><p></p><p>"I can, and he did not--neither he nor the man the village accuses did."</p><p></p><p>They travel to examine the body where it has been lain in the village chapel. The acolyte is praying over the body. They can easily identify the makeshift jail as they travel across the village to the chapel, which is a little bit larger, though no better built, than the rest of the village buildings.</p><p></p><p>There are a group of rough-hewn benches facing a makeshift altar, with a very small sun-disk--likely a personal holy symbol repurposed as a public one--hung behind it. The body is laid upon a bier of wood, before the plain table that serves as an altar.</p><p></p><p>The apparent cause of death is obvious: there is a substantial indentation in the side of her head, in which a sachet of herbs has been placed. Aedrin immediately begins matter of factly removing all of her clothing, so that the body can be fully examined for any other signs of injury. He notices three things, besides the major trauma on her head: the first is that there is bruising on her left arm, as if she was grabbed; the second is that there is a faint, lingering, almost sickly sweet smell by her mouth; and the third is that something about that smell makes him feel almost light-headed.</p><p></p><p>He wafts the smell around. "Do any of you recognize this smell? Careful with it."</p><p></p><p>Riverwood feels the urge to flee in response to the smell--so strong that she almost does, before she steels herself. Bob, the human priest, says that the smell just smells stupid. Grolnok cannot smell it at all.</p><p></p><p>"So, it seems to only affect people with elven blood?" Riverwood says. She looks at the body carefully. "The ears are a little pointed and the frame slight... she can't be full elven, but perhaps she was a quarter elf or so."</p><p></p><p>Grolnok says, "All right, that gets us a theory of the case. Her lover came to talk with her; they had an argument; he grabbed her by the arm and bashed her head with a brick; and then he poisoned her with special elf poison."</p><p></p><p>"Uhhh.... I'm not sure if he'd already bashed her head in with a brick, there would be any need for poison," points out Riverwood.</p><p></p><p>Aedrin carefully probes her mouth, looking for a source of the scent--he pulls out a brown paste, almost like mud, from inside her mouth, and wipes it on a clean handkerchief to preserve it. Even in the concentrated form, Grolnok cannot smell it at all, and none of them can recognize the scent. Aedrin's fingers tingle from the contact.</p><p></p><p>"See? She must have been poisoned," says Grolnok. "So, she eats the poison, and then starts to run away, he grabs her, and then he bashes her head with the brick."</p><p></p><p>"The brick that we haven't heard anything about before this? And doesn't that seem awfully complicated?"</p><p></p><p>"I have a suggestion for how we could find proof," says Aedrin. "You all go to talk to the suspect. While you have him busy, I'll search his cabin. If I find the poison, we know we have our man."</p><p></p><p>"I can use a Zone of Truth to determine if he's lying," says Bob. "Lord Paranswarm grants that spell to me."</p><p></p><p>"And you can let me know mentally when you have him busy. I can establish a mindlink with two of you." Aedrin reaches out psionically to Bob and Grolnok, deliberately not touching the mind of the wood elf.</p><p></p><p>Grolnok, Father Bob, and Riverwood go to speak with the man that Sir Adalby suspects.</p><p></p><p>Father Bob casts a zone of truth. He can see a sparkly blue field surrounding the three of them and the suspect.</p><p></p><p>Grolnok puts his hand on the man's shoulder. "What was your relationship with the unfortunately deceased?"</p><p></p><p>"Nothing like I wanted it to be," he grumbles. The field remains blue.</p><p></p><p>"Do you know how she died?"</p><p></p><p>"Pretty obvious. I've seen the body. The side of her skull was stove in."</p><p></p><p>"You obviously knew her pretty well?"</p><p></p><p>"Well enough to fall in love with her. Have you ever been in love with a beautiful woman, Grolnok?"</p><p></p><p>"Hah. No. Orks aren't all that and a bag of chips. You loved her. You wouldn't kill her."</p><p></p><p>"Kill her? I may be an ugly man, but I wouldn't kill someone I loved." The zone doesn't turn red, which would indicate a lie, but it does turn yellow.</p><p></p><p>"Did you kill her?"</p><p></p><p>"I didn't kill her." The zone of truth turns yellow again.</p><p></p><p>"Did you assist in the murder?"</p><p></p><p>"No, I didn't assist in the murder." The zone turns blue again.</p><p></p><p>"Do you know who killed her?"</p><p></p><p>"No, I don't know who killed her. She did reject me."</p><p></p><p>Grolnok tries to intimidate him. "What did you do?!"</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Aedrin slips into the hut, though this one almost deserves the term "cabin." There is a wooden table with a book open upon it, and a rudely made wooden chair. There are also four large chests--three of them also simple woodwork, like the furniture, and the fourth fancy and elegantly made, with fine scrollwork on it. That one has a lock on it, unlike the other three. Aedrin heads straight for it.</p><p></p><p>He begins to investigate the chest, checking it for traps, and almost concludes there isn't one before one last psychokinetic check turns up a needle trap in the lock. He places a wood block in front of it and deliberately discharges the trap before picking the lock. A spray of nine needles embed themselves in the wooden block. Aedrin sniffs at the poison, and recognizes the smell: concentrated spider venom.</p><p></p><p><<He had a very serious poison needle trap on his chest, with what's probably drowan poison. Very expensive, and not what you'd expect a random villager to have. He spent a lot of money on both the trap and the poison to use on the trap.>></p><p></p><p>Aedrin picks the lock and finds that the chest has several interesting items: a money box, which he ignores; a book; and a small box that looks to him to be high glass, tinted with the colors of the psionic guild of redactors. Aedrin examines the high glass box first. It has three labeled dials on it, clearly a combination lock of some sort.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the interrogation continues.</p><p></p><p>"When was the last time you saw her before she died?"</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps three hours earlier, on the same day." The field remains blue.</p><p></p><p>"What did you talk about?"</p><p></p><p>"We talked about my merchandise, and how successful I thought I could be as the community grows and recovers." Most of that remained blue, but with a tinge of yellow as he said how successful he could be--Bob thinks he probably is already successful.</p><p></p><p>"And how are you doing in business?"</p><p></p><p>"Much less well than in the old days, but as well as I can under the circumstances. Better than most." The field remains a perfect blue.</p><p></p><p>"What do you buy and sell?"</p><p></p><p>"Now, anything I can get my hands on. In the old days, back before the South Kingdom fell in the flurry of demons, I dealt primarily in fine clothing and certain rare essences."</p><p></p><p>"And hypothetically, would you still have any of these rare essences on you?"</p><p></p><p>"On me? No, no, I would not carry them."</p><p></p><p>"But you still own them?"</p><p></p><p>"I have small quantities left. Yes, for the day there'll be enough wealth to sell them again. I would have given her one of them if she'd only said yes." Bob sees a new color in the field--it's still blue, but almost with purple tinges. He thinks that's because of strong emotion impinging on the man's logical faculties.</p><p></p><p>Back in the cabin, Aedrin sniffs at the high glass box, to see if it has a scent like the scent they found on the body--if it's filled with the brown stuff, it would smell from when it's opened and closed. But he smells no smell at all. He then turns to the book, because the combination lock seems more challenging than he wants to deal with first.</p><p></p><p>The book is filled with alchemical information. It also has writing in it in two different languages and very different hands. The first writing is in silver ink, very elegantly done, and does not look to be human in work. Aedrin can't read it, but he recognizes many characters from Drowan--he assumes that this is some other form of Elven. The second hand is in a crabbed, ugly black ink, and is in common. He infers that the text was written in Elven, then translated into Common. He pages through the book. The early pages are filled with formulae for various perfumes and the like, including a philter of love. Towards the back, there is a section that is not translated--but that section has a faint odor to it that Aedrin recognizes, strongest on some of the last, untranslated pages.</p><p></p><p><<He's our man. Find out if he knows what the what the smell coming out of her mouth was about.>> he sends to Grolnok and Bob.</p><p></p><p>"So let's say that during our investigation, we found there's a strange odor around her mouth," says Bob. "Any idea what it is?"</p><p></p><p>"No." The field is a blazing red.</p><p></p><p>In response, they haul him bodily over to a chair and tie him to it, trying to make sure he can't flee.</p><p></p><p>"Care to try that last one again?"</p><p></p><p>"Look, look..." pleads the merchant.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, so what is it?"</p><p></p><p>"Listen to me. I didn't give it to her. I didn't make it."</p><p></p><p>"Okay."</p><p></p><p>"I never had it translated. She could read the language. She didn't know what she was making... I didn't know she could read that language, whatever it is, but she can. She could, and she thought... I don't know why she made it. I think she thought she'd make it as a gift, but..."</p><p></p><p>"I don't think you want to give it to anyone," says Riverwood.</p><p></p><p>"I never had it translated, because they told me what it was, and it terrified me. The idea of even having it readable in my book scared me, but I guess there are people who can read it in my book even untranslated."</p><p></p><p>"Well, what is it?" asks Bob.</p><p></p><p>"I didn't make it. She made it. It's a drug called kriff. There's a flower you can derive it from, used by the old elves. There are several things you can make from it--poisons and this drug. I didn't want to sell that. I sell essences, and now anything I can lay my hands on, but I didn't want to sell that. Oh, God, I'm tied to this chair! You're not going to let me go, are you?"</p><p></p><p>They relay that to Aedrin. <<I know what kriff is. Powerful drug. The elves never sell it, but the drow might. It's strictly forbidden by the Guild in Canberry. It's mostly used to debilitate and destroy human or similar cultures, because it's pleasurable at first and exceedingly addictive.>></p><p></p><p>"So you think she got addicted to it?"</p><p></p><p>"Seems likely. Possibly. Maybe. I don't know. I think she took some and then fell and hit her head. But since I showed her the book..."</p><p></p><p>"So she learned how to make a drug, got high, tripped, and died."</p><p></p><p>"I think so." He bursts into tears. "So I did kill her indirectly. I knew that the man who was arrested was innocent, and I said nothing. The knight was going to hang somebody, and I didn't want it to be me. And now I will be hanged for it."</p><p></p><p>The group argues over whether he should be executed for this or given a less severe punishment, with the merchant miserably listening, still tied to a chair.</p><p></p><p>"I'm not confident that she didn't know what she was making," says Grolnok.</p><p></p><p>Riverwood nods. "She could read the language, and from what we can tell, she did have Elven blood..."</p><p></p><p>"I think we're going to want to talk to her sister and find out."</p><p></p><p>They turn back to the merchant. "Have you told us everything you want to tell us? Anything you need to tell us?"</p><p></p><p>"I told you things I didn't want to tell you!" That is sparkly blue.</p><p></p><p><<Ask him about the high glass casket.>></p><p></p><p>"What do you keep in the high glass casket?"</p><p></p><p>"How do you know about that? You must have searched my home..."</p><p></p><p>"Just answer the question."</p><p></p><p>"Fair enough. I brought that with me from the fall of my city. It contains the best of my essences, the most expensive. Someday there was going to be a market for them again. There won't be after I'm hanged, but some day there would have been a market for them again. Well, I suppose there still will be a market for them again, but it won't be for me..."</p><p></p><p>"How were you so successful?"</p><p></p><p>"I was a successful merchant of high-end goods in a great city. There is much money to be made in that."</p><p></p><p>"But now?"</p><p></p><p>"Now, I am not successful. I buy and sell what I can to take my hand to keep my hand in, while hoping that things get to a point again where a merchant of quality can make a decent living."</p><p></p><p>"But you still seem to be doing pretty well for yourself."</p><p></p><p>"I buy and sell whatever I can. If you can provide people's needs, there's money to be had. Do you know I bartered for things? If you know about my glass casket, you've been in my house. That chair that I have with my table, the table, the chest that I keep much of the barter goods in hoping that someday a merchant will come along to buy them to take to a city--all of those were bartered for. I have been reduced to bartering to make a profit, and I learned to lay a floor. Just sleeping on the dirt was beyond me."</p><p></p><p>"Did you know what you were giving her? How did she get access to your book with the recipe for kriff?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I showed it to her. I wanted to impress her. I didn't expect she could read the language I hadn't had translated at great expense back in my home city."</p><p></p><p>"But you did you realize she was making it."</p><p></p><p>"She said she was making me a surprise."</p><p></p><p>After confirming that the untranslated material is all poisons and kriff recipes, Aedrin uses a knife to excise those pages from the book. The group has a little debate over this--is it theft? Is it confiscating dangerous materials? But most of them don't mind.</p><p></p><p>"I think you should have taken out the kriff and other dangerous materials instructions," says Grolnok to the merchant.</p><p></p><p>"I didn't think anyone could read them except that weird guy at the scriptorium that I paid to translate it. I found that book. I didn't know what it was, but it was beautiful, so I bought it. For years, I kept it on an end table in our home. And then my wife suggested that I have someone try to translate it, because she said she thought that there were chemical symbols on the cover. So I went to the scriptorium, and one of the men--a really old servant to Berta-- could translate it. I don't know if he knew the language or had a gift from the goddess, but he began translating it, and when he got toward the end, he asked me if I really was sure I wanted that translated, and I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'these are for deadly poisons and drugs.' And he told me about kriff, and I said, 'No, don't translate those,' and then I paid him the two and a half thousand silver he wanted for the others."</p><p></p><p>"That's expensive," comments Bob.</p><p></p><p>"And I made it back many times over the years. He was the only one who could translate it. When you are the only only one with an item that another wants, you can charge anything they can reasonably afford, and you will get it. That is basic merchanting."</p><p></p><p>"So get those monopolies."</p><p></p><p>"Exactly. He had a monopoly. Then I had a monopoly on those essences, and people went wild for them. They paid the price."</p><p></p><p>"So you made a fortune off the translated pages. Why didn't you destroy the pages with the dangerous recipes?"</p><p></p><p>"It would make the book imperfect. It wouldn't look beautiful anymore. I don't like to destroy beautiful things. And I never met anyone before except the old man in the scriptorium who could read it at all."</p><p></p><p>Riverwood knows that the old followers of Berta were not friendly with elves in the old days.</p><p></p><p>"Believe me, I did not want her to die. I wanted her to love me, but I was willing to go on as her friend, if I couldn't have that, and instead... What I don't understand is, you say it was around her mouth? She ate some of it? Doesn't make sense. Why would she want to commit suicide? Why would she want to taste it? I don't know what the text says, but I assume from what you've said, that the odor will do it. So if she was testing it, why put it in her mouth?"</p><p></p><p>They decide to go to the sister. An argument breaks out between Bob, who wants to keep the merchant tied up, and Riverwood, who wants to release him. Eventually, they agree to untie him but to keep him with them so he can't run away. They meet up with Aedrin and head to the sister's home.</p><p></p><p>They enter the hut, and the sister, who has probably been weeping recently, looks up in surprise, and then she sees the merchant and looks confused.</p><p></p><p>"Hi, sorry," says the merchant. "I'm just standing here."</p><p></p><p>"That's a lovely opening," says Riverwood. "We have to keep him with us. Otherwise, he's stuck to a chair."</p><p></p><p>"They said that this was more humane or something," Bob explains. "I don't know."</p><p></p><p>As they begin talking, Bob and Riverwood both notice that the sister's ears show signs of having been surgically rounded, like slight points were cut off. Riverwood looks back and forth between the sister and Aedrin, comparing the two people with part elven ancestry.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, treat me just as an object to compare with," says Aedrin. "Go ahead."</p><p></p><p>"That's not what I meant!" says Riverwood indignantly.</p><p></p><p>"How can I help you?" says the sister. "You're surely the ones that were sent from the Empire."</p><p></p><p>"What can you tell us about your sister? Did she have any unusual problems?"</p><p></p><p>"When we we were young, she went through a stretch. But they got better with time."</p><p></p><p>"What was that stretch?"</p><p></p><p>"Well. The priest of Berta said it was a poltergeist, but I always thought it was my sister. Things moved randomly, flew through the air, and then when she would get angry, things would blow apart, glass frames, that type of thing. But then all at once, it stopped, when we got older."</p><p></p><p>Aedrin says, "Psionics, then. Random manifesting as she went through threshold sickness, but then when she survived, it turned into an untrained but controlled, never fully manifested, Gift." He pauses. "Did she have any difficulties with kriff?"</p><p></p><p>She looks confused. "I don't know what that is."</p><p></p><p>"Did she have any problems with addictions?"</p><p></p><p>"Not that I know of. I mean, she never really got over the death of her betrothed in the Intaking. But we helped as we could. She would have stayed and died with him if we hadn't dragged her along with us when we fled."</p><p></p><p>"Was she still so suicidal recently?"</p><p></p><p>"Not that I know of. You think she bashed her own head in?"</p><p></p><p>"I forgot about that... I was focused on the poisoning."</p><p></p><p>"I thought she was doing better, really, before she was murdered. She was starting to take more interest in things again. She wouldn't accept the suit from that man, but he did start her back up with tools so she could start making perfumes from flowers and herbs. I assume she was selling them to him."</p><p></p><p>"Did she have any other associates?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, yes. Several traveling merchants. There's the beginning of a trade route that touches here. They were paying her for the essences she could make, even though she felt they're inferior. I didn't even know some of the essences that I smelled her working with. So I almost think she managed to trade for another alchemical manual somewhere. They weren't in her old repertoire."</p><p></p><p>"Well, we know where those came from," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"And these other people that she sold to--are any of them in town now?"</p><p></p><p>"No, the last left the same day she died."</p><p></p><p>"Interesting! So, my working theory: she made some kriff, and they decided that was valuable enough to kill her for. But it's strange, because if she was their source, they'd never want to kill her. Maybe they somehow got a recipe from her..."</p><p></p><p>"Which way would they go?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, they're heading towards that independent town that has so little to do with us. Pivonzowe. It's a few 1,000 people, ruled by an archmage--the most powerful person in the region-- and very standoffish. They'll trade with anyone, but they won't let any one in their walls, and they pre-existed all of our settlements. They are probably from the same era as all the abandoned villages where we dare not go, but they're still here."</p><p></p><p>"That's about half a day's travel away. And so that means that if they left here going there, they'll be there by now," says Aedrin, examining a map the knight gave them. "But we could get to Pivonzowe today if we felt like we needed to."</p><p></p><p>"Do you want to see her book?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, yes, we do."</p><p></p><p>She goes over to a corner where there's a cot with a crude chest stored under it, and she pulls the crude chest out and opens it up. It has a few clothes, several ceramic glass vials that don't look like very high quality, and a book. She pulls the book out and hands it to them.</p><p></p><p>The book is hand written, clearly as much a notebook as anything else. They flip to the back, where there's writing:</p><p></p><p>"I can't believe the recipes I'm finding in his book. He can't speak the Old Speech. He has no idea."</p><p></p><p>There are then several pages of translations in a much nicer hand than the one that the scribe had used. It describes four different recipes. One is kriff; the other three are all based on the flower kirif. One is the psychoactive activator and the other two special psionic poisons. Aedrin recognizes those three and immediately pulls out a knife to cut those pages out, too--not destroying them, but cutting them from the book.</p><p></p><p>"Did you know that your sister was dealing in poisons and drugs?"</p><p></p><p>"No, I've never bothered her private things. That would be weird. And poisons? We don't have any need for poisons here. Oh, to the merchants! You think she was selling these to them?"</p><p></p><p>They examine the four ceramic pots carefully. None of them have the smell of kriff on them. They very carefully open them, and find that one has the activator drug to be given to a person at threshold.</p><p></p><p>"That's very valuable," says Aedrin. "Possibly as much as 500 or 600 silver worth of it. It's not the highest quality. It's not even the quality drow make, but it's probably the best she could do with what she's got--her equipment is pretty primitive for this sort of work." Aedrin turns to the merchant and perfumer. "Would you be able to follow these instructions?" He shows him the instructions for the psionic activator.</p><p></p><p>"It's pretty straightforward. I could follow it. There aren't very many kirif flowers in the area. There are some. I've seen them. They're a weed."</p><p></p><p>"Apparently not, according to this," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"But yes, I could follow this."</p><p></p><p>"In a major city, the Society of the Mind, or the Ministry of the Mind, or places like that would pay good money for this one. We'll let you copy that one only, but not the other two. You don't need to know about them. And you you might do well making that up and shipping it north."</p><p></p><p>He happily copies the recipe. "Thank you. I still thought I was likely to hang. They're going to have to hang someone."</p><p></p><p>"Well, then, we'd better go. I just figure that this village needs money, and if he starts making this stuff, shipping it north, the money will flow."</p><p></p><p>"Money is good," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"So maybe we shouldn't have him hanged," says Riverwood. "I don't know."</p><p></p><p>"That's what I'm thinking. I think we should go talk to the night, and then I guess we have to head to Pivonzowe."</p><p></p><p>"Did we ever talk to the person that is currently on pace to get lynched? We might want to go talk to him."</p><p></p><p>They head to the little jail. The guy sitting in front of it with the spiked club and the chain shirt leaps to his feet when they approach and loudly proclaims, "This person is under the protection of... oh, you're the imperial guys."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, we're just here for interrogations," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, go ahead." He moves out of the way.</p><p></p><p>"You should really in the future verify that people are authorized by the knight before you give them access to the prisoner. But don't worry about this time."</p><p></p><p>"Right you are." He's not the brightest candle in the stack, but he is trying.</p><p></p><p>The prisoner looks up when they come in.</p><p></p><p>"So what do you know about that murder?" says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"Did you do it?" adds Grolnok.</p><p></p><p>"No, I didn't do it. I was in the fields plowing. I didn't. I didn't."</p><p></p><p>"And do you have proof you were in the fields?"</p><p></p><p>"No, the knight already asked me that. I was plowing acreage separate from the other people."</p><p></p><p>"What did you see? Did anyone go to talk to the victim?"</p><p></p><p>"People talk to her all the time. Sometimes she even talks back. Sometimes she ignores them, but people talk to her all the time."</p><p></p><p>"Have you noticed anyone suspicious around her recently?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't know how to tell suspicious. I mean, she's got new customers for her essences, but..."</p><p></p><p>"Who are these new customers?"</p><p></p><p>"A group of merchants. There were three of them, all men, one of them very ill favored. No offense, but kind of like him." He gestures with his chin towards Grolnok.</p><p></p><p>"Did they have names?"</p><p></p><p>"The master merchant... He told her what it was. She mentioned it, but... I was glad to see her busy doing something rather than just moping. Do you think the master merchant killed her? They said I hit her with a brick. I asked them what brick, so they changed it to a stone. I didn't hit her with a stone or my fist or anything."</p><p></p><p>"So, you poisoned her," probes Bob.</p><p></p><p>"No, no, I didn't poison her. I swear it!"</p><p></p><p>They bring the merchant back to his house, telling him not to leave the village ("Where would I even go?") and then tell the knight that they're heading off to try to intercept these merchants.</p><p></p><p>When they come to the knight, he says, "Oh, yeah, I remember them. They came in to town, showed a few low-grade vials of perfume and headed off."</p><p></p><p>"We think they murdered her on the way out. We think they're dealing in in forbidden drugs."</p><p></p><p>"Oh!" The knight thinks for a bit, processing that. "Well, I'm not gonna mention that part to the villagers, but I'm going to mention that the imperial representatives believe it was them and are pursuing them. That will prevent them from storming the jail. Or it should. But who knows... You go see if you can bring them back. Huh. I wasn't even thinking about them."</p><p></p><p>"I suppose we can also leave the lover boy in the village," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"We have a mule. Will that help?"</p><p></p><p>"We've already got a mule."</p><p></p><p>"Right. We don't have any horses. I have my steed, but it won't answer to any but me, and I know, I know, that sounds like I'm making it up, but it's the truth."</p><p></p><p>"Some horses are like that, aren't they?" says Riverwood.</p><p></p><p>"You ought to know: The deceased had instructions on making some of these forbidden drugs and some poisons, and that we have confiscated those."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, well, that's good. But what was she doing then? I don't want to know--it's too complicated. Go ahead."</p><p></p><p>"Don't worry, we don't know, either," says Bob.</p><p></p><p>"I hope you find out. I'd like to hear an explanation where I don't end up hurting my brain."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, you shouldn't hurt your brain," says Riverwood. "It's not pleasant."</p><p></p><p>"No promises," adds Bob.</p><p></p><p>"Well, you know, do your best."</p><p></p><p>He supplies them with some food packs, and they are ready to head out.</p><p>[End Session 3]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8961404, member: 7030144"] Session 3 (January 1, 2023) 4 End Year They are in the village of Sylfezky, and guests of Sir Adalby Sylfezky. They are all having an oatmeal breakfast with the knight. "What we face, friends, is that this man is accused of killing his sister-in-law." "Yikes." "That's not good." "The law agrees with you. I wield a greatsword with alacrity. I defend my people. I will guide them. But I don't know how to figure out whether someone committed a crime or they're being framed. I'm hoping that the emissaries who were sent," he gestures at all of them with his oatmeal spoon, "are more knowledgeable on this." Riverwood says, "Maybe one of us. I don't think it's me." Aedrin has a more practical question. "Sir knight. Just so I'm clear on this. Are you wanting us to find out what actually happened, or is there some conclusion that you're wanting us to find out? We can probably do either, but I'd like to know which job I'm being asked to do." "Find out what actually happened! The problem is that the people want this handled fast. They think they know who did it, they want him hanged. I can probably delay the trial until the end of the day, but not much longer without having to kill to protect him, and I don't want to kill my own people." "That makes sense," responds Riverwood. "Because the people are convinced he did it, but I am somewhat less convinced. For an odd reason... There seems to be no reason for him to have done it. But then again, as I said, I know nothing about how to investigate these things. This is not part of my training, nor my life." "I've been involved in more than a few investigations, though usually not on this side," says Aedrin. "So I'm sure we can figure things out." "Well, at least we can try." "Why do they think he did it?" asks Grolnok. "They lived in the same cabin. Well, I say cabin, but most of them are really huts. But the victim lived in a cabin with her sister and her sister's husband, and so when she was found dead in the cabin, most people assumed her sister's husband must have done it. He and his wife claim that he had gone to the fields to work. I can't find anyone who saw him there, but given the amount of land we're trying to work with the few people we have, he could easily have been out working and unseen by any. But just the same, if there was some problem in the relationship between the sister and the husband, or the sister and the wife, none might have seen it." "But the wife does not accuse him--she stands by her husband?" "Aye, she does." "Is there anyone else who might have been interested in killing her?" "I have one, but he's considered an upstanding man of the village." "Is he, now?" Aedrin says, immediately suspicious of him. "I suspect that the man whose courtship she refused recently. He is a widower who lost his wife at the Intaking on the Day of the Dead. He may be responsible. He is a jealous and angry man--has been ever since I came here, but I have no evidence whatsoever that he was even near the cottage." "Have you attempted questioning him?" asks Riverwood. "Of course! I said, 'did you kill this woman?' And he said, 'No.'" "That's not how you question someone. If you just ask, 'Did you kill this woman?' Obviously, he's going to answer 'No,' even if he did do it." "But I am a lyan," he says. "We do not have a great deal of subtlety." Lyans are holy warriors dedicated to the principle of Law--like paladins, but without the focus on Good as well. "Of Glordiadel?" "Of course! You didn't know He had some, did you? There are not many, but some. And once upon a time, I was more congruent with the faith that I belonged to, for I was at one time a lyan of Berta." "Isn't Berta a goddess of Chaos?" "Of course! And what could be more chaotic than for a Goddess of Chaos to be served by a lyan?" They have no answer for that, though they are befuddled. "Can you detect chaos, as paladins detect evil? Did the man you suspect have the mark of chaos upon him?" "I can, and he did not--neither he nor the man the village accuses did." They travel to examine the body where it has been lain in the village chapel. The acolyte is praying over the body. They can easily identify the makeshift jail as they travel across the village to the chapel, which is a little bit larger, though no better built, than the rest of the village buildings. There are a group of rough-hewn benches facing a makeshift altar, with a very small sun-disk--likely a personal holy symbol repurposed as a public one--hung behind it. The body is laid upon a bier of wood, before the plain table that serves as an altar. The apparent cause of death is obvious: there is a substantial indentation in the side of her head, in which a sachet of herbs has been placed. Aedrin immediately begins matter of factly removing all of her clothing, so that the body can be fully examined for any other signs of injury. He notices three things, besides the major trauma on her head: the first is that there is bruising on her left arm, as if she was grabbed; the second is that there is a faint, lingering, almost sickly sweet smell by her mouth; and the third is that something about that smell makes him feel almost light-headed. He wafts the smell around. "Do any of you recognize this smell? Careful with it." Riverwood feels the urge to flee in response to the smell--so strong that she almost does, before she steels herself. Bob, the human priest, says that the smell just smells stupid. Grolnok cannot smell it at all. "So, it seems to only affect people with elven blood?" Riverwood says. She looks at the body carefully. "The ears are a little pointed and the frame slight... she can't be full elven, but perhaps she was a quarter elf or so." Grolnok says, "All right, that gets us a theory of the case. Her lover came to talk with her; they had an argument; he grabbed her by the arm and bashed her head with a brick; and then he poisoned her with special elf poison." "Uhhh.... I'm not sure if he'd already bashed her head in with a brick, there would be any need for poison," points out Riverwood. Aedrin carefully probes her mouth, looking for a source of the scent--he pulls out a brown paste, almost like mud, from inside her mouth, and wipes it on a clean handkerchief to preserve it. Even in the concentrated form, Grolnok cannot smell it at all, and none of them can recognize the scent. Aedrin's fingers tingle from the contact. "See? She must have been poisoned," says Grolnok. "So, she eats the poison, and then starts to run away, he grabs her, and then he bashes her head with the brick." "The brick that we haven't heard anything about before this? And doesn't that seem awfully complicated?" "I have a suggestion for how we could find proof," says Aedrin. "You all go to talk to the suspect. While you have him busy, I'll search his cabin. If I find the poison, we know we have our man." "I can use a Zone of Truth to determine if he's lying," says Bob. "Lord Paranswarm grants that spell to me." "And you can let me know mentally when you have him busy. I can establish a mindlink with two of you." Aedrin reaches out psionically to Bob and Grolnok, deliberately not touching the mind of the wood elf. Grolnok, Father Bob, and Riverwood go to speak with the man that Sir Adalby suspects. Father Bob casts a zone of truth. He can see a sparkly blue field surrounding the three of them and the suspect. Grolnok puts his hand on the man's shoulder. "What was your relationship with the unfortunately deceased?" "Nothing like I wanted it to be," he grumbles. The field remains blue. "Do you know how she died?" "Pretty obvious. I've seen the body. The side of her skull was stove in." "You obviously knew her pretty well?" "Well enough to fall in love with her. Have you ever been in love with a beautiful woman, Grolnok?" "Hah. No. Orks aren't all that and a bag of chips. You loved her. You wouldn't kill her." "Kill her? I may be an ugly man, but I wouldn't kill someone I loved." The zone doesn't turn red, which would indicate a lie, but it does turn yellow. "Did you kill her?" "I didn't kill her." The zone of truth turns yellow again. "Did you assist in the murder?" "No, I didn't assist in the murder." The zone turns blue again. "Do you know who killed her?" "No, I don't know who killed her. She did reject me." Grolnok tries to intimidate him. "What did you do?!" Meanwhile, Aedrin slips into the hut, though this one almost deserves the term "cabin." There is a wooden table with a book open upon it, and a rudely made wooden chair. There are also four large chests--three of them also simple woodwork, like the furniture, and the fourth fancy and elegantly made, with fine scrollwork on it. That one has a lock on it, unlike the other three. Aedrin heads straight for it. He begins to investigate the chest, checking it for traps, and almost concludes there isn't one before one last psychokinetic check turns up a needle trap in the lock. He places a wood block in front of it and deliberately discharges the trap before picking the lock. A spray of nine needles embed themselves in the wooden block. Aedrin sniffs at the poison, and recognizes the smell: concentrated spider venom. <<He had a very serious poison needle trap on his chest, with what's probably drowan poison. Very expensive, and not what you'd expect a random villager to have. He spent a lot of money on both the trap and the poison to use on the trap.>> Aedrin picks the lock and finds that the chest has several interesting items: a money box, which he ignores; a book; and a small box that looks to him to be high glass, tinted with the colors of the psionic guild of redactors. Aedrin examines the high glass box first. It has three labeled dials on it, clearly a combination lock of some sort. Meanwhile, the interrogation continues. "When was the last time you saw her before she died?" "Perhaps three hours earlier, on the same day." The field remains blue. "What did you talk about?" "We talked about my merchandise, and how successful I thought I could be as the community grows and recovers." Most of that remained blue, but with a tinge of yellow as he said how successful he could be--Bob thinks he probably is already successful. "And how are you doing in business?" "Much less well than in the old days, but as well as I can under the circumstances. Better than most." The field remains a perfect blue. "What do you buy and sell?" "Now, anything I can get my hands on. In the old days, back before the South Kingdom fell in the flurry of demons, I dealt primarily in fine clothing and certain rare essences." "And hypothetically, would you still have any of these rare essences on you?" "On me? No, no, I would not carry them." "But you still own them?" "I have small quantities left. Yes, for the day there'll be enough wealth to sell them again. I would have given her one of them if she'd only said yes." Bob sees a new color in the field--it's still blue, but almost with purple tinges. He thinks that's because of strong emotion impinging on the man's logical faculties. Back in the cabin, Aedrin sniffs at the high glass box, to see if it has a scent like the scent they found on the body--if it's filled with the brown stuff, it would smell from when it's opened and closed. But he smells no smell at all. He then turns to the book, because the combination lock seems more challenging than he wants to deal with first. The book is filled with alchemical information. It also has writing in it in two different languages and very different hands. The first writing is in silver ink, very elegantly done, and does not look to be human in work. Aedrin can't read it, but he recognizes many characters from Drowan--he assumes that this is some other form of Elven. The second hand is in a crabbed, ugly black ink, and is in common. He infers that the text was written in Elven, then translated into Common. He pages through the book. The early pages are filled with formulae for various perfumes and the like, including a philter of love. Towards the back, there is a section that is not translated--but that section has a faint odor to it that Aedrin recognizes, strongest on some of the last, untranslated pages. <<He's our man. Find out if he knows what the what the smell coming out of her mouth was about.>> he sends to Grolnok and Bob. "So let's say that during our investigation, we found there's a strange odor around her mouth," says Bob. "Any idea what it is?" "No." The field is a blazing red. In response, they haul him bodily over to a chair and tie him to it, trying to make sure he can't flee. "Care to try that last one again?" "Look, look..." pleads the merchant. "Okay, so what is it?" "Listen to me. I didn't give it to her. I didn't make it." "Okay." "I never had it translated. She could read the language. She didn't know what she was making... I didn't know she could read that language, whatever it is, but she can. She could, and she thought... I don't know why she made it. I think she thought she'd make it as a gift, but..." "I don't think you want to give it to anyone," says Riverwood. "I never had it translated, because they told me what it was, and it terrified me. The idea of even having it readable in my book scared me, but I guess there are people who can read it in my book even untranslated." "Well, what is it?" asks Bob. "I didn't make it. She made it. It's a drug called kriff. There's a flower you can derive it from, used by the old elves. There are several things you can make from it--poisons and this drug. I didn't want to sell that. I sell essences, and now anything I can lay my hands on, but I didn't want to sell that. Oh, God, I'm tied to this chair! You're not going to let me go, are you?" They relay that to Aedrin. <<I know what kriff is. Powerful drug. The elves never sell it, but the drow might. It's strictly forbidden by the Guild in Canberry. It's mostly used to debilitate and destroy human or similar cultures, because it's pleasurable at first and exceedingly addictive.>> "So you think she got addicted to it?" "Seems likely. Possibly. Maybe. I don't know. I think she took some and then fell and hit her head. But since I showed her the book..." "So she learned how to make a drug, got high, tripped, and died." "I think so." He bursts into tears. "So I did kill her indirectly. I knew that the man who was arrested was innocent, and I said nothing. The knight was going to hang somebody, and I didn't want it to be me. And now I will be hanged for it." The group argues over whether he should be executed for this or given a less severe punishment, with the merchant miserably listening, still tied to a chair. "I'm not confident that she didn't know what she was making," says Grolnok. Riverwood nods. "She could read the language, and from what we can tell, she did have Elven blood..." "I think we're going to want to talk to her sister and find out." They turn back to the merchant. "Have you told us everything you want to tell us? Anything you need to tell us?" "I told you things I didn't want to tell you!" That is sparkly blue. <<Ask him about the high glass casket.>> "What do you keep in the high glass casket?" "How do you know about that? You must have searched my home..." "Just answer the question." "Fair enough. I brought that with me from the fall of my city. It contains the best of my essences, the most expensive. Someday there was going to be a market for them again. There won't be after I'm hanged, but some day there would have been a market for them again. Well, I suppose there still will be a market for them again, but it won't be for me..." "How were you so successful?" "I was a successful merchant of high-end goods in a great city. There is much money to be made in that." "But now?" "Now, I am not successful. I buy and sell what I can to take my hand to keep my hand in, while hoping that things get to a point again where a merchant of quality can make a decent living." "But you still seem to be doing pretty well for yourself." "I buy and sell whatever I can. If you can provide people's needs, there's money to be had. Do you know I bartered for things? If you know about my glass casket, you've been in my house. That chair that I have with my table, the table, the chest that I keep much of the barter goods in hoping that someday a merchant will come along to buy them to take to a city--all of those were bartered for. I have been reduced to bartering to make a profit, and I learned to lay a floor. Just sleeping on the dirt was beyond me." "Did you know what you were giving her? How did she get access to your book with the recipe for kriff?" "Oh, I showed it to her. I wanted to impress her. I didn't expect she could read the language I hadn't had translated at great expense back in my home city." "But you did you realize she was making it." "She said she was making me a surprise." After confirming that the untranslated material is all poisons and kriff recipes, Aedrin uses a knife to excise those pages from the book. The group has a little debate over this--is it theft? Is it confiscating dangerous materials? But most of them don't mind. "I think you should have taken out the kriff and other dangerous materials instructions," says Grolnok to the merchant. "I didn't think anyone could read them except that weird guy at the scriptorium that I paid to translate it. I found that book. I didn't know what it was, but it was beautiful, so I bought it. For years, I kept it on an end table in our home. And then my wife suggested that I have someone try to translate it, because she said she thought that there were chemical symbols on the cover. So I went to the scriptorium, and one of the men--a really old servant to Berta-- could translate it. I don't know if he knew the language or had a gift from the goddess, but he began translating it, and when he got toward the end, he asked me if I really was sure I wanted that translated, and I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'these are for deadly poisons and drugs.' And he told me about kriff, and I said, 'No, don't translate those,' and then I paid him the two and a half thousand silver he wanted for the others." "That's expensive," comments Bob. "And I made it back many times over the years. He was the only one who could translate it. When you are the only only one with an item that another wants, you can charge anything they can reasonably afford, and you will get it. That is basic merchanting." "So get those monopolies." "Exactly. He had a monopoly. Then I had a monopoly on those essences, and people went wild for them. They paid the price." "So you made a fortune off the translated pages. Why didn't you destroy the pages with the dangerous recipes?" "It would make the book imperfect. It wouldn't look beautiful anymore. I don't like to destroy beautiful things. And I never met anyone before except the old man in the scriptorium who could read it at all." Riverwood knows that the old followers of Berta were not friendly with elves in the old days. "Believe me, I did not want her to die. I wanted her to love me, but I was willing to go on as her friend, if I couldn't have that, and instead... What I don't understand is, you say it was around her mouth? She ate some of it? Doesn't make sense. Why would she want to commit suicide? Why would she want to taste it? I don't know what the text says, but I assume from what you've said, that the odor will do it. So if she was testing it, why put it in her mouth?" They decide to go to the sister. An argument breaks out between Bob, who wants to keep the merchant tied up, and Riverwood, who wants to release him. Eventually, they agree to untie him but to keep him with them so he can't run away. They meet up with Aedrin and head to the sister's home. They enter the hut, and the sister, who has probably been weeping recently, looks up in surprise, and then she sees the merchant and looks confused. "Hi, sorry," says the merchant. "I'm just standing here." "That's a lovely opening," says Riverwood. "We have to keep him with us. Otherwise, he's stuck to a chair." "They said that this was more humane or something," Bob explains. "I don't know." As they begin talking, Bob and Riverwood both notice that the sister's ears show signs of having been surgically rounded, like slight points were cut off. Riverwood looks back and forth between the sister and Aedrin, comparing the two people with part elven ancestry. "Yes, treat me just as an object to compare with," says Aedrin. "Go ahead." "That's not what I meant!" says Riverwood indignantly. "How can I help you?" says the sister. "You're surely the ones that were sent from the Empire." "What can you tell us about your sister? Did she have any unusual problems?" "When we we were young, she went through a stretch. But they got better with time." "What was that stretch?" "Well. The priest of Berta said it was a poltergeist, but I always thought it was my sister. Things moved randomly, flew through the air, and then when she would get angry, things would blow apart, glass frames, that type of thing. But then all at once, it stopped, when we got older." Aedrin says, "Psionics, then. Random manifesting as she went through threshold sickness, but then when she survived, it turned into an untrained but controlled, never fully manifested, Gift." He pauses. "Did she have any difficulties with kriff?" She looks confused. "I don't know what that is." "Did she have any problems with addictions?" "Not that I know of. I mean, she never really got over the death of her betrothed in the Intaking. But we helped as we could. She would have stayed and died with him if we hadn't dragged her along with us when we fled." "Was she still so suicidal recently?" "Not that I know of. You think she bashed her own head in?" "I forgot about that... I was focused on the poisoning." "I thought she was doing better, really, before she was murdered. She was starting to take more interest in things again. She wouldn't accept the suit from that man, but he did start her back up with tools so she could start making perfumes from flowers and herbs. I assume she was selling them to him." "Did she have any other associates?" "Oh, yes. Several traveling merchants. There's the beginning of a trade route that touches here. They were paying her for the essences she could make, even though she felt they're inferior. I didn't even know some of the essences that I smelled her working with. So I almost think she managed to trade for another alchemical manual somewhere. They weren't in her old repertoire." "Well, we know where those came from," says Bob. "And these other people that she sold to--are any of them in town now?" "No, the last left the same day she died." "Interesting! So, my working theory: she made some kriff, and they decided that was valuable enough to kill her for. But it's strange, because if she was their source, they'd never want to kill her. Maybe they somehow got a recipe from her..." "Which way would they go?" "Oh, they're heading towards that independent town that has so little to do with us. Pivonzowe. It's a few 1,000 people, ruled by an archmage--the most powerful person in the region-- and very standoffish. They'll trade with anyone, but they won't let any one in their walls, and they pre-existed all of our settlements. They are probably from the same era as all the abandoned villages where we dare not go, but they're still here." "That's about half a day's travel away. And so that means that if they left here going there, they'll be there by now," says Aedrin, examining a map the knight gave them. "But we could get to Pivonzowe today if we felt like we needed to." "Do you want to see her book?" "Yes, yes, we do." She goes over to a corner where there's a cot with a crude chest stored under it, and she pulls the crude chest out and opens it up. It has a few clothes, several ceramic glass vials that don't look like very high quality, and a book. She pulls the book out and hands it to them. The book is hand written, clearly as much a notebook as anything else. They flip to the back, where there's writing: "I can't believe the recipes I'm finding in his book. He can't speak the Old Speech. He has no idea." There are then several pages of translations in a much nicer hand than the one that the scribe had used. It describes four different recipes. One is kriff; the other three are all based on the flower kirif. One is the psychoactive activator and the other two special psionic poisons. Aedrin recognizes those three and immediately pulls out a knife to cut those pages out, too--not destroying them, but cutting them from the book. "Did you know that your sister was dealing in poisons and drugs?" "No, I've never bothered her private things. That would be weird. And poisons? We don't have any need for poisons here. Oh, to the merchants! You think she was selling these to them?" They examine the four ceramic pots carefully. None of them have the smell of kriff on them. They very carefully open them, and find that one has the activator drug to be given to a person at threshold. "That's very valuable," says Aedrin. "Possibly as much as 500 or 600 silver worth of it. It's not the highest quality. It's not even the quality drow make, but it's probably the best she could do with what she's got--her equipment is pretty primitive for this sort of work." Aedrin turns to the merchant and perfumer. "Would you be able to follow these instructions?" He shows him the instructions for the psionic activator. "It's pretty straightforward. I could follow it. There aren't very many kirif flowers in the area. There are some. I've seen them. They're a weed." "Apparently not, according to this," says Bob. "But yes, I could follow this." "In a major city, the Society of the Mind, or the Ministry of the Mind, or places like that would pay good money for this one. We'll let you copy that one only, but not the other two. You don't need to know about them. And you you might do well making that up and shipping it north." He happily copies the recipe. "Thank you. I still thought I was likely to hang. They're going to have to hang someone." "Well, then, we'd better go. I just figure that this village needs money, and if he starts making this stuff, shipping it north, the money will flow." "Money is good," says Bob. "So maybe we shouldn't have him hanged," says Riverwood. "I don't know." "That's what I'm thinking. I think we should go talk to the night, and then I guess we have to head to Pivonzowe." "Did we ever talk to the person that is currently on pace to get lynched? We might want to go talk to him." They head to the little jail. The guy sitting in front of it with the spiked club and the chain shirt leaps to his feet when they approach and loudly proclaims, "This person is under the protection of... oh, you're the imperial guys." "Yes, we're just here for interrogations," says Bob. "Oh, go ahead." He moves out of the way. "You should really in the future verify that people are authorized by the knight before you give them access to the prisoner. But don't worry about this time." "Right you are." He's not the brightest candle in the stack, but he is trying. The prisoner looks up when they come in. "So what do you know about that murder?" says Bob. "Did you do it?" adds Grolnok. "No, I didn't do it. I was in the fields plowing. I didn't. I didn't." "And do you have proof you were in the fields?" "No, the knight already asked me that. I was plowing acreage separate from the other people." "What did you see? Did anyone go to talk to the victim?" "People talk to her all the time. Sometimes she even talks back. Sometimes she ignores them, but people talk to her all the time." "Have you noticed anyone suspicious around her recently?" "I don't know how to tell suspicious. I mean, she's got new customers for her essences, but..." "Who are these new customers?" "A group of merchants. There were three of them, all men, one of them very ill favored. No offense, but kind of like him." He gestures with his chin towards Grolnok. "Did they have names?" "The master merchant... He told her what it was. She mentioned it, but... I was glad to see her busy doing something rather than just moping. Do you think the master merchant killed her? They said I hit her with a brick. I asked them what brick, so they changed it to a stone. I didn't hit her with a stone or my fist or anything." "So, you poisoned her," probes Bob. "No, no, I didn't poison her. I swear it!" They bring the merchant back to his house, telling him not to leave the village ("Where would I even go?") and then tell the knight that they're heading off to try to intercept these merchants. When they come to the knight, he says, "Oh, yeah, I remember them. They came in to town, showed a few low-grade vials of perfume and headed off." "We think they murdered her on the way out. We think they're dealing in in forbidden drugs." "Oh!" The knight thinks for a bit, processing that. "Well, I'm not gonna mention that part to the villagers, but I'm going to mention that the imperial representatives believe it was them and are pursuing them. That will prevent them from storming the jail. Or it should. But who knows... You go see if you can bring them back. Huh. I wasn't even thinking about them." "I suppose we can also leave the lover boy in the village," says Bob. "We have a mule. Will that help?" "We've already got a mule." "Right. We don't have any horses. I have my steed, but it won't answer to any but me, and I know, I know, that sounds like I'm making it up, but it's the truth." "Some horses are like that, aren't they?" says Riverwood. "You ought to know: The deceased had instructions on making some of these forbidden drugs and some poisons, and that we have confiscated those." "Oh, well, that's good. But what was she doing then? I don't want to know--it's too complicated. Go ahead." "Don't worry, we don't know, either," says Bob. "I hope you find out. I'd like to hear an explanation where I don't end up hurting my brain." "Oh, you shouldn't hurt your brain," says Riverwood. "It's not pleasant." "No promises," adds Bob. "Well, you know, do your best." He supplies them with some food packs, and they are ready to head out. [End Session 3] [/QUOTE]
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Aphonion Tales: Agents of Canberry (edited transcripts, posts Thursdays, updated 3/17/23)
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