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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2757974" data-attributes="member: 1210">“What can we do to find her?” wonders Dahlia.  The morning crowd at the Spinning Dice is all around our heroes; the smells of breakfast and the sounds of cooking dance through the air.“I wonder what the deal was with the undead,” muses Colder.  “They seemed to attack the guys attacking us, or at least one of them.  Maybe they weren’t in cahoots.”“Maybe they weren’t especially in cahoots, but I think they were in cahoots enough,” Kyle comments wryly.  “What about that woman?” asks Goer.  “What’s up with her?”“Thee thprouted bat wingth,” declares Sir Cedric drunkenly.  “And she seemed able to vanish,” Kyle adds.  “I don’t know if she was turning invisible somehow, or- just gone.”Otis says, “The two that bore religious symbols were clerics of Dreymore.”“Well, we can at least do some asking around,” Jorgen suggests.  “It has done well by me in the past- that’s how I found those Tydonian spies.”The group agrees that this is their best starting point, and over the course of the day they do just that.  They learn a number of interesting things concerning various pieces of the puzzle.At the Cathedral of Clymorian, the priests speculate that the woman might be a demon called a succubus, able to move instantly from place to place and change her form.  Jorgen nods; that could explain how he was supposedly the one that called off the party’s own trap in the cemetery.Allegedly, the graveyard is haunted, so it’s possible that the undead the party encountered were there by coincidence.  Better than that, though, one local fellow tells our heroes, “I overheard some guys talking about a job they’d been hired to do in the cemetery- to rough some guys up.”  The speaker describes the four men he had seen, and they sound like the rogues that ambushed the party in the graveyard.  This happened at a seedy bar called the Hopping Chicken. “That’s a lead,” comments Colder.Another man, upon being purchased a loaf of bread and bottle of wine, gives them another lead.  “Thelron, you say?  I remember that name from somewhere... oh yeah, there was a wanted poster!”      Yet another person, conversing with Goer in a bar, says, “I talked to a guy once who went to the Ghost Tower.  He said there were weird winged beasts there, and terrible monsters that threw spikes at him!  And there was the ghost of a powerful wizard that almost killed him!”Finally, a thin old man with bitter eyes tells the party, “Yeah, there’s a secret group that practices black magic in the city- if you listen to the rumors, you can put it together.  I think that most of ‘em are probably knights and nobles, anyway.  They got all the books and stuff.”  The man has no evidence of his claims, but he’s convinced.  “How else could they still be around?  Wouldn’t the nobles and knights hunt them down otherwise?  And who else has time for stuff like that?  Not us farmers, that’s for sure!”Following up on the report of the poster gets the party to a tattered wanted poster describing Thelron as a bandit and rapist, and offering a 60 gp reward for his head.  The party decides to see if they can collect this later.  “Sixty gold is a lot of money,” remarks Goer.“That depends,” Otis says obliquely, hiding a smile.  His gambling has made him rich- very rich.  Evening is falling.  The party heads to the citadel to report to the baron, but before they reach it Jorgen stops them.  “I’m concerned about something,” he says.  “I think... I think that there is a traitor among the baron’s closest advisors.”That gets everyone’s attention.Jorgen explains his suspicions.  “It seems to me that only the baron, his main advisors and us knew what was going on with the plan to trick them in the graveyard, but they laid a trap for us.  They knew we were coming.  Someone tipped them off.”“So... Sir Galadon or Sir Harth?” asks Kyle.“I think one of them is most likely- they were privy first hand to all our discussions with the baron and about the plan.  Or perhaps Sir Byron or Sir Gygax- they too are on the baron’s close council.  They are likely to be well-informed.”  Jorgen adds, “Also, whoever called off the plan to lay our own trap supposedly looked just like me.” “The woman could change shape; perhaps she imitated you,” suggests Otis.“Both have thtellar reputationth,” Sir Cedric says, sipping his beverage.  “Come!  We mutht not make the baron wait.”  The party hurries into the citadel, where they report their progress- and their suspicions.  “If there is a traitor, you must ferret him out,” states the Baron.  For a moment his voice breaks, but then he catches himself and continues along in a deep, booming voice.  “By the power of my pinkie finger,” declares Cedric, “we thall!”While at the baron’s citadel, the party meets a half-orc scout calling himself Me.  Apparently, he brings news of a big army only a handful of days away.  Sir Cedric bristles; it is a mass of Tydonian rabble!  “We will dethtroy them on the fieldth of battle!” Cedric announces gleefully.“Me destroy!” the half-orc yells happily.“How far away are they?” asks Kyle.Me looks thoughtful for about ten seconds before holding out a splayed hand.  “Five!”“Five... miles?  Five days?”“Five days!”  Perhaps Me is best described as a pissblood of few words, but enthusiastic ones.  When the group relates their story to him, he eloquently expresses that “Me crush thieves!” and “Bad army coming!”  Our heroes are so amused by the scout- who appears to be between assignments- that they suggest that he stay at the same inn as them, and he begins tagging along with them.Jorgen remains at the castle to see what he can stir up, while the others return to the Spinning Dice.  After a brief discussion, the party decides that they will go to the Hopping Chicken in the hopes that they will find some information about the rogues that assaulted them.  Indeed, they luck out and find one of the rogues, spying him within while they are still outside.  Otis turns Kyle invisible and the party moves in.  The rogue backs down easily and submits to questioning.  He claims that his friends and he were just hired to rough the party up. “Hired by whom?” demands Otis.“A guy named Thelron.”  The party doesn’t get much more out of him, however, for he gets a little mouthy and Otis blasts him with a magic missile, laying him low.  The party departs before the amazed people in the tavern can do more than gape.It has been a long day; at this point our heroes retire.Tomorrow, they vow, they will try to trick the traitor into revealing himself.Next Time: Our heroes attempt to ferret out the traitor!</blockquote>

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