Session 21: Investigating a Murder
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord.)
23 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 84) (immediately after)
We were told that we’d be staying in the Stonebright citadel (or clanhold).
We got a bit more information on the layout of the clanhold. There is a high wall around it with a gate. Going through the gate, the driveway descended, so most of the clanhold is below the level of the ground. The individual homes and quarters have facades carved into the rock -- like there are streets carved like canyons in the rock and houses carved into the walls of those “streets” within the clanhold.
Sort of Petra meets Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen’s House in Star Wars (but maybe more Petra).
We talked to Mr. Stonebright about what happened. The man who died was named Jarek Turnstone. He and Mr. Ullar Stonebright, our employer, were in a relationship when Mr. Stonebright was betrothed to Jarek Turnstone’s sister, Tamna Turnstone.
We asked what kind of investigation the guard did and Ullar Stonebright didn’t know. He’d been gone for more than 30 years. He left before the body was discovered. Because he didn’t know a lot about the investigation or exactly why the Turnstones were so certain that he was the one who’d killed Jarek, he asked if we could meet the Stonebright clan elder, Tanlot.
While we were waiting for word on that, we talked more about the events leading up to him leaving Torm Brinnom and Jarek’s death. He told us a little about Dwarven marriage customs (at least in Torm Brinnom) -- when a clan has a young adult of the right age, they go to an elder of another clan, someone who’s known as a matchmaker, and that elder arranges a marriage with a young person from another clan.
Ullar Stonebright said he was surprised that someone tried to arrange a marriage for him - it was no great secret that he’s gay. The elder who arranged it was named Amnok Rockbreaker.
We asked what the Rockbreakers would gain by making such an inappropriate match. Could they possibly be going for power within the stronghold? He said that one clan has a hereditary leadership of Torm Brinnom, the King or Queen, but there is a clan council and on a vote of no confidence the clan that is in power would have to step down and another would step into their place.
Currently the Ironbeard clan are the hereditary monarchs.
We asked about the hill dwarves, including Captain Strongaxe’s people. He said that the resident hill dwarves lived in the compound that we saw in the common area as we came into Torm Brinnom. He agreed that talking to the Strongaxes is a good idea -- they might have an outsider perspective on the affairs of the mountain dwarf clans.
Going back to his arranged marriage to Tamna Turnstone -- the marriage was arranged by Amnok Rockbreaker, who had a good reputation as a matchmaker. However, even before the disastrous pairing between Ullar Stonebright and Tamna Turnstone he’d developed a pattern of making some very iffy matches -- personality mismatches.
About then we were informed that we would be having dinner with Tanlot Stonebright, the clan elder. Ullar Stonebright wouldn’t be there. We were told that Tanlot had a suspicion that we’d all speak more freely that way. Ullar wasn’t thrilled but he accepted the situation. Not that he’s worried about what would be said -- but he wants to know what’s going on and why his own self.
We were escorted to our dinner -- we entered a room that looked sort of like a den or a small dining room. An elderly dwarf lady, Marxine estimated she was 400 or more years old, stood up as we entered and gestured to the other chairs at the round table in the room, inviting us to sit. Beer was brought in followed by a very nice stew.
She told us that Ullard and Jarek had a relationship -- they might have thought they were keeping it quiet, but it was not a secret.
She told us that Amnok Rockbreaker, who had arranged the match between Ullard and Tamna, had disappeared shortly after Ulllard left.
We asked why Ullard would have killed Jarek. She said that the guard, and the Turnstones, said that they had witnesses who said they were arguing.
Vinya: How do they know he was murdered? It seems like he might have fallen, or jumped, off the wall.
Tanlot: His neck was broken before he was thrown off the wall. Also he was found far enough from the wall that he clearly didn’t just fall.
Tanlot told us that Tamna Turnstone had another marriage arranged for her, this time by a matchmaker in the Anvilhands clan, to a young man in the Goldbrews clan.
Vinya: Since the pairing of Ullard with Tamna was so obviously not going to work, why did you accept the pairing? Do you have an opportunity to say no to an arranged marriage?
Tanlot: There’s a time when only the elders of the two clans know what match has been arranged -- during that time we have a chance to reject it. Once the pairing is announced publicly, though, it’s much harder to call it to a halt. In this case Amnock Rockbreaker announced it before we had a chance to reject the match.
Vinya: Are the Rockbreakers still here? Are they still making bad matches?
Tanlot: The Rockbreakers are still in Torm Brinnom, but they do not have a matchmaker in their clan since Amnok disappeared.
We asked her what form the feud between the Turnstones and the Stonebrights had been taking. Or dwarf feuds in general. She said that they start with personal arguments and business disputes, then clans start making shady deals with one another. She said that could lead to a revenge cycle of shady deals. Eventually fighting starts -- though it hasn’t gotten to that point here in Torm Brinnom yet.
Tanlot: At this point nothing has been said that can’t be unsaid. Though there have been some fistfights.
Marxine: We have a letter of introduction to the Strongaxes in the hill dwarf compound.
Tanlot: Lorto Strongaxe has a good head on his shoulders. It will probably be helpful for you to talk to him.
Marxine: It would be helpful for us to have a letter from you, so we can let people know that we’re connected with you if we need to.
Tanlot: I will do that.
Vinya: My first teacher as a monk was Hragdar Goldbrew.
Tanlot: I do not know him.
After dinner, we decided to go to an inn or bar where the different clans socialize together. We found the Adamant Gorgon, a big bar in the common area with lots of people from the clans and the resident non-mountain dwarves and guests. There was a hill dwarf greeting people at the door.
We found a table with a couple of hill dwarves and a rock gnome sitting at it -- and five empty seats. They’re playing a game where they’re bouncing coins into a glass. Marxine went to drop a copper into the glass and knocked a player’s coin out.
There were a few moments of good natured bickering over whether that counted as him getting a coin in the cup or not during which they invited us to sit with them.
Gnome: What brings the lot of you here?
Marxine: Adventuring.
Gnome: What adventure brought you here
Elderron: We were escorting someone?
Gnome: Who?
Elderron: Ullard Stonebright.
Everyone at the table knew that name and were interested that Ullard Stonebright was back in Torm Brinnom. They told us that things were really very tense in the stronghold -- the feuding had spread beyond the Stonebrights and the Turnstones. All of the mountain dwarves were treating each other badly, which is not the normal way of things.
Vinya: How long has this been going on?
They looked at each other and talked for a moment then all three of them agreed that it had been getting tense for about 10 years.
Vinya: And Ullard has been gone for about 30.
Dwarf: Did he do it?
Marxine: No way.
Dwarf: The tension started to build almost instantly when he left. According to the Turnstones, Ullard jilted the girl and killed her brother. But you say he didn’t do the latter.
We introduced ourselves and discovered that one of the dwarves we were talking to was Lorto Strongaxe, kin to Captain Strongaxe on the boat from Lonoj.
Lorto: This here is Arl Stormfist and the little guy is Quipperwhill.
We mentioned the bad matches that Artok Rockbreaker had been making before making the disastrous one between Ullard and Tamna. Lorto said that other people have been making weird decisions and behaving strangely. And that many of those people, like Artok Rockbreaker, have then disappeared after starting arguments or shorting merchants.
Lorto: I can think of eight who have disappeared over the last decade.
Marxine: That’s a lot of disappearances!
Vinya: Damn!
Marxine: Can you tell us some of the people who’ve behaved oddly and then disappeared? We’d like to look into this.
Lorto: There was a merchant from the Anvilhands who was shorting people. A smith from the Hammerhammers did shoddy work and sold some of it to the Silversmiles, Ironbeards, and Rockbreakers. He claimed the Goldbrews had sold him some bad iron, but they could prove they hadn’t.
Vinya: We’ve met a Hammerhammer -- he was an amazing smith.
Lorto: That’s their reputation and it’s important to them. It was a really big deal this guy making shoddy products -- it hurt their reputation for a while and caused a lot of stress in the clan. But then the guy disappeared.
Vinya: Who from outside Torm Brinnom would benefit from the social fabric fraying?
Lorto: People always think there’s good stuff in a stronghold.
Vinya: Are any of these other feuds getting big?
Lorto: The biggest dispute right now is between the Stonebrights and The Turnstones.
Elderron: Has any of this people behaving oddly happened recently?
Lorto: I haven’t heard of it.
We talked to them about the murder of Jarek Turnstone. They all agreed that it seemed weird. What the guard and the Turnstones say happened -- that Ullard broke Jarek’s neck and threw him off the wall of Torm Brinnom -- doesn’t match what the guards found. The guards say he fell or was pushed, but from how he landed it looked more like he was flung by a trebuchet -- he flew farther from the wall than even a normally muscular dwarf could possibly throw someone.
Vinya: Ullard is not a normally muscular dwarf. He’s quite slender and not terribly strong.
Elderron: Why won’t the Turnstones listen to that evidence?
Lorto: They were hurt by the end of the betrothal.
Vinya: Why were they so attached to what was obviously a very awkward match?
Lorto: I don’t know.
We ordered beer and spent the evening hanging out and playing their coin game, Coppers, until we went back to the Stonebright clanhold.
In the safety of the clanhold, the night passed entirely without incident.
24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85)
In the morning, we had a private breakfast in our chambers, and discussed what we wanted to do. Vinya wanted to talk to the guard about what evidence they had -- perhaps there was actual evidence that pointed to Ullard as the killer. We also wanted to talk to Tamna Goldbrew, formerly Tamna Turnstone, the jilted betrothed because we thought she might have an interesting perspective.
We started with the guard. Armed with Tanlot Stonebright’s letter of introduction and some talking up our connection with Captain Althorn in Erlin and Captain Toris in Lonoj, we found ourselves fairly quickly talking with Captain Tulkon SIlversmile. He was pretty tall and burly for a dwarf and had very dark hair.
Vinya: We have some questions about Ullard Stonebright and Jarek Turnstone. We’re trying to find out who did it, because we want justice to be done for all parties.
Elama: Did anyone ever cast speak with dead on his remains?
Captain Silversmile: Yes. He didn’t know who killed him. The last person he talked to was Ullard. He spoke to him on the wall. The last person he saw was Ullard. He saw him on the wall. Those were our five questions.
Vinya: That’s not very conclusive.
Captain Silversmile: Stonebright left Torm Brinnom -- his wagon was seen leaving, but the driver was cloaked and no one could conclusively identify the driver. We have witnesses who saw them arguing, but the reports are questionable and inconsistent. One said they were arguing outside the gate to the Stonebright clanhold. Another said they were outside the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. At about the same time.
Vinya: How close are the holds?
Captain Silversmile: Far enough apart that there couldn’t be a mistake about it. And they couldn’t both be right.
Elderron: Who were the witnesses?
Captain Silversmile: A patrol of guards saw them arguing outside the Stonebrights’. A merchant from the Goldbrews saw them arguing outside the Turnstones’.
Elderron: What about these disappearances we’ve heard about?
Captain Silversmile: There have been too many of those. Far too many. There have been at least 25 people who have disappeared without a trace over the last 25 years. Artok Rockbreaker was maybe the most prominent -- he was well trusted in the community until he started making those bad matches at the end. He was last seen at about the same time as the murder.
Vinya: So Ullard ended the betrothal and then is supposed to have immediately killed Jarek?
Captain Silversmile: No, there was a couple of days between the end of the betrothal and the murder.
Elderron: What was the most recent disappearance?
Captain Silversmile: Tardot Silversmile. He disappeared six months ago. He is my uncle.
Vinya: I’m so sorry!
Captain Silversmile: How would you have known?
Vinya: I’m sorry for your loss.
Elderron: Was he acting strange before he disappeared?
Captain Silversmile: He was short tempered and seemed to think he was more of an elder in our clan than he really was. He’s a fine dwarf, but doesn’t have as much authority as he was claiming
Marxine: What kind of authority?
Captain Silversmile: He was trying to give orders to our forces.
Elderron: What kind of orders?
Captain Silversmile: Like preparing the forces for an attack.
Vinya: Against who?
Captain Silversmile: It didn’t get that far. But Darmon Silversmile, another of my uncles, Tardot’s brother, is the head of our clan militia and they look pretty similar.
Vinya: You have a militia within your clan?
Captain Silversmile: All the clans have a militia. Each clan is responsible for training up a militia, but they're not supposed to deploy them without orders from the King except in the gravest emergencies.
Elderron: How are the mines doing?
Captain Silversmile: I don’t spend much time there. The miners found a seam of adamantine, which has people excited.
Marxine: What’s the timeline for the trial?
Captain Silversmile: The trial will probably happen within half a month. Some of that time will be spent finding three people from other clans, acceptable to both the Stonebrights and the Turnstones, who will be the judges.
After talking to Captain Silversmile, we decided we needed to go talk to Ullard again and get a bit more information and detail from him.
Vinya, to the rest of the party as we went back to the Stonebright clanhold: I feel like something is replacing or duplicating people.
Someone: Like a doppelganger?
Vinya: Maybe. Or someone with a really good disguise kit. Or a disguise self spell. Maybe a few people. I mean people saw Ullard and Jarek arguing in two different places at the same time. So if they’re both right, someone was duplicating Jarek in one place and Ullard in another. It would also explain these disappearances and Captain Silversmile’s uncle acting like he thought he was his brother, the head of the militia. And Jarek’s corpse saying that the last person he saw was Ullard, two days after Ullard left Torm Brinnom.
To Vinya’s surprise, the others didn’t think this was completely nuts.
Back at the Stonebright hold, we asked Ullard for the timeline of events, from his point of view.
Ullard: I found out I was betrothed and went immediately to talk to Jarek. He was more argumentative than usual and really seemed determined that I should go through with the betrothal. We had an argument about it. I came home. I figured out that I wasn’t going to go through with the marriage. So I packed my things and loaded up a cart. The next day I went to talk to Jarek, but he wasn’t at the Turnstone clanhold. The guards seemed weird -- as though they were wondering why I was asking for him. They seemed to think I should know. So I asked to talk to Tamna. I told her I was going to leave Torm Brinnom.
Vinya: Did you ask her where Jarek was?
Ullard: No. I got in my wagon and pulled my cloak around me and headed out of the stronghold.
Marxine: To be absolutely clear, you never spoke with Jarek on the wall?
Ullard: Not between the announcement of my betrothal and me leaving Torm Brinnom. Some places on the wall are kind of secluded and couples have …. meetings there. It’s like a lovers’ walk. So we’d been there before.
Elderron: What was his reason for wanting you to go through with the marriage?
Ullard: He said it would be better for our clans and that Rockbreaker knew what he was doing.
Ullard said that he’s found out since he returned that there was some thought that Jarek left with him, until they found his body.
Vinya had a really good feeling that he was telling the absolute truth.
We talked about where we needed to go from here.
Vinya: Whatever it is that is copying people and however it’s being done, they’re going to be targeting the people selected as judges, I’d think.
We decided that since we were there we could talk to the head of the Stonebright militia -- Annim Stonebright. We asked him if he knew about Tarnot Silversmile trying to order the Silversmile militia to prepare for an attack.
Arnim: He was acting like his brother.
Us: Yeah. Who’s the head of the Turnstone militia?
Arnim: Kemmit Turnstone.
We filed that away in case it became useful later, but decided to go to the Goldbrews to talk to Tanma.
When we got to the Goldbrew clanhold, Vinya stepped up and threw around Hragdar’s name, asking if he was there. He was not. So she then asked if we could speak to Tanma.
We were asked to wait in a waiting room near the gate. After fifteen minutes or so, Tanma came into the waiting room.
Tanma: The last time I spoke to Ullard he came by to speak to Jarek, but he wasn’t there. He asked for me then. He told me that he was leaving Torm Brinnom because he thought it would be easier for my clan to find me another husband if he was entirely gone. And that would be easier than getting Rockbreaker to change his mind.
Vinya: That actually speaks pretty well of him.
Tanma: Yeah. My clan wanted the marriage to happen, but I knew about Ullard and Jarek and I didn’t think it was going to work well for anyone.
She told us that Ullard looked like he was bundled up for travel and had a wagon outside the gate. It was clear to her that he was going to be leaving as soon as they were done talking.
Vinya: When was this?
Tanma: Around lunchtime. Earlier, the day before I guess, I’d talked to Jarek. He seemed upset. He said that Ullard had been acting weird, but he was going to try to talk sense into him. It sounded like Jarek thought Ullard was going to go through with the marriage. When Ullard said he was leaving the next day, I thought he and Jarek had a talk.
Vinya: We’ve heard about people acting strangely around the stronghold. Have you seen anything like that?
Tanma: Well, my dad has been pretty weird. He never seemed like a vengeful sort before, but now, like in the last five years, he’s become determined to have vengeance on the Stonebrights.
Vinya: What’s your father’s name?
Tanma: Ult Turnstone. It’s become a fixation for him. An obsession.
Vinya: Is he the clan elder?
Tanma: No. But my uncle is and my father has his brother’s ear.
We ended on that alarming note.
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord.)
23 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 84) (immediately after)
We were told that we’d be staying in the Stonebright citadel (or clanhold).
We got a bit more information on the layout of the clanhold. There is a high wall around it with a gate. Going through the gate, the driveway descended, so most of the clanhold is below the level of the ground. The individual homes and quarters have facades carved into the rock -- like there are streets carved like canyons in the rock and houses carved into the walls of those “streets” within the clanhold.
Sort of Petra meets Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen’s House in Star Wars (but maybe more Petra).
We talked to Mr. Stonebright about what happened. The man who died was named Jarek Turnstone. He and Mr. Ullar Stonebright, our employer, were in a relationship when Mr. Stonebright was betrothed to Jarek Turnstone’s sister, Tamna Turnstone.
We asked what kind of investigation the guard did and Ullar Stonebright didn’t know. He’d been gone for more than 30 years. He left before the body was discovered. Because he didn’t know a lot about the investigation or exactly why the Turnstones were so certain that he was the one who’d killed Jarek, he asked if we could meet the Stonebright clan elder, Tanlot.
While we were waiting for word on that, we talked more about the events leading up to him leaving Torm Brinnom and Jarek’s death. He told us a little about Dwarven marriage customs (at least in Torm Brinnom) -- when a clan has a young adult of the right age, they go to an elder of another clan, someone who’s known as a matchmaker, and that elder arranges a marriage with a young person from another clan.
Ullar Stonebright said he was surprised that someone tried to arrange a marriage for him - it was no great secret that he’s gay. The elder who arranged it was named Amnok Rockbreaker.
We asked what the Rockbreakers would gain by making such an inappropriate match. Could they possibly be going for power within the stronghold? He said that one clan has a hereditary leadership of Torm Brinnom, the King or Queen, but there is a clan council and on a vote of no confidence the clan that is in power would have to step down and another would step into their place.
Currently the Ironbeard clan are the hereditary monarchs.
We asked about the hill dwarves, including Captain Strongaxe’s people. He said that the resident hill dwarves lived in the compound that we saw in the common area as we came into Torm Brinnom. He agreed that talking to the Strongaxes is a good idea -- they might have an outsider perspective on the affairs of the mountain dwarf clans.
Going back to his arranged marriage to Tamna Turnstone -- the marriage was arranged by Amnok Rockbreaker, who had a good reputation as a matchmaker. However, even before the disastrous pairing between Ullar Stonebright and Tamna Turnstone he’d developed a pattern of making some very iffy matches -- personality mismatches.
About then we were informed that we would be having dinner with Tanlot Stonebright, the clan elder. Ullar Stonebright wouldn’t be there. We were told that Tanlot had a suspicion that we’d all speak more freely that way. Ullar wasn’t thrilled but he accepted the situation. Not that he’s worried about what would be said -- but he wants to know what’s going on and why his own self.
We were escorted to our dinner -- we entered a room that looked sort of like a den or a small dining room. An elderly dwarf lady, Marxine estimated she was 400 or more years old, stood up as we entered and gestured to the other chairs at the round table in the room, inviting us to sit. Beer was brought in followed by a very nice stew.
She told us that Ullard and Jarek had a relationship -- they might have thought they were keeping it quiet, but it was not a secret.
She told us that Amnok Rockbreaker, who had arranged the match between Ullard and Tamna, had disappeared shortly after Ulllard left.
We asked why Ullard would have killed Jarek. She said that the guard, and the Turnstones, said that they had witnesses who said they were arguing.
Vinya: How do they know he was murdered? It seems like he might have fallen, or jumped, off the wall.
Tanlot: His neck was broken before he was thrown off the wall. Also he was found far enough from the wall that he clearly didn’t just fall.
Tanlot told us that Tamna Turnstone had another marriage arranged for her, this time by a matchmaker in the Anvilhands clan, to a young man in the Goldbrews clan.
Vinya: Since the pairing of Ullard with Tamna was so obviously not going to work, why did you accept the pairing? Do you have an opportunity to say no to an arranged marriage?
Tanlot: There’s a time when only the elders of the two clans know what match has been arranged -- during that time we have a chance to reject it. Once the pairing is announced publicly, though, it’s much harder to call it to a halt. In this case Amnock Rockbreaker announced it before we had a chance to reject the match.
Vinya: Are the Rockbreakers still here? Are they still making bad matches?
Tanlot: The Rockbreakers are still in Torm Brinnom, but they do not have a matchmaker in their clan since Amnok disappeared.
We asked her what form the feud between the Turnstones and the Stonebrights had been taking. Or dwarf feuds in general. She said that they start with personal arguments and business disputes, then clans start making shady deals with one another. She said that could lead to a revenge cycle of shady deals. Eventually fighting starts -- though it hasn’t gotten to that point here in Torm Brinnom yet.
Tanlot: At this point nothing has been said that can’t be unsaid. Though there have been some fistfights.
Marxine: We have a letter of introduction to the Strongaxes in the hill dwarf compound.
Tanlot: Lorto Strongaxe has a good head on his shoulders. It will probably be helpful for you to talk to him.
Marxine: It would be helpful for us to have a letter from you, so we can let people know that we’re connected with you if we need to.
Tanlot: I will do that.
Vinya: My first teacher as a monk was Hragdar Goldbrew.
Tanlot: I do not know him.
After dinner, we decided to go to an inn or bar where the different clans socialize together. We found the Adamant Gorgon, a big bar in the common area with lots of people from the clans and the resident non-mountain dwarves and guests. There was a hill dwarf greeting people at the door.
We found a table with a couple of hill dwarves and a rock gnome sitting at it -- and five empty seats. They’re playing a game where they’re bouncing coins into a glass. Marxine went to drop a copper into the glass and knocked a player’s coin out.
There were a few moments of good natured bickering over whether that counted as him getting a coin in the cup or not during which they invited us to sit with them.
Gnome: What brings the lot of you here?
Marxine: Adventuring.
Gnome: What adventure brought you here
Elderron: We were escorting someone?
Gnome: Who?
Elderron: Ullard Stonebright.
Everyone at the table knew that name and were interested that Ullard Stonebright was back in Torm Brinnom. They told us that things were really very tense in the stronghold -- the feuding had spread beyond the Stonebrights and the Turnstones. All of the mountain dwarves were treating each other badly, which is not the normal way of things.
Vinya: How long has this been going on?
They looked at each other and talked for a moment then all three of them agreed that it had been getting tense for about 10 years.
Vinya: And Ullard has been gone for about 30.
Dwarf: Did he do it?
Marxine: No way.
Dwarf: The tension started to build almost instantly when he left. According to the Turnstones, Ullard jilted the girl and killed her brother. But you say he didn’t do the latter.
We introduced ourselves and discovered that one of the dwarves we were talking to was Lorto Strongaxe, kin to Captain Strongaxe on the boat from Lonoj.
Lorto: This here is Arl Stormfist and the little guy is Quipperwhill.
We mentioned the bad matches that Artok Rockbreaker had been making before making the disastrous one between Ullard and Tamna. Lorto said that other people have been making weird decisions and behaving strangely. And that many of those people, like Artok Rockbreaker, have then disappeared after starting arguments or shorting merchants.
Lorto: I can think of eight who have disappeared over the last decade.
Marxine: That’s a lot of disappearances!
Vinya: Damn!
Marxine: Can you tell us some of the people who’ve behaved oddly and then disappeared? We’d like to look into this.
Lorto: There was a merchant from the Anvilhands who was shorting people. A smith from the Hammerhammers did shoddy work and sold some of it to the Silversmiles, Ironbeards, and Rockbreakers. He claimed the Goldbrews had sold him some bad iron, but they could prove they hadn’t.
Vinya: We’ve met a Hammerhammer -- he was an amazing smith.
Lorto: That’s their reputation and it’s important to them. It was a really big deal this guy making shoddy products -- it hurt their reputation for a while and caused a lot of stress in the clan. But then the guy disappeared.
Vinya: Who from outside Torm Brinnom would benefit from the social fabric fraying?
Lorto: People always think there’s good stuff in a stronghold.
Vinya: Are any of these other feuds getting big?
Lorto: The biggest dispute right now is between the Stonebrights and The Turnstones.
Elderron: Has any of this people behaving oddly happened recently?
Lorto: I haven’t heard of it.
We talked to them about the murder of Jarek Turnstone. They all agreed that it seemed weird. What the guard and the Turnstones say happened -- that Ullard broke Jarek’s neck and threw him off the wall of Torm Brinnom -- doesn’t match what the guards found. The guards say he fell or was pushed, but from how he landed it looked more like he was flung by a trebuchet -- he flew farther from the wall than even a normally muscular dwarf could possibly throw someone.
Vinya: Ullard is not a normally muscular dwarf. He’s quite slender and not terribly strong.
Elderron: Why won’t the Turnstones listen to that evidence?
Lorto: They were hurt by the end of the betrothal.
Vinya: Why were they so attached to what was obviously a very awkward match?
Lorto: I don’t know.
We ordered beer and spent the evening hanging out and playing their coin game, Coppers, until we went back to the Stonebright clanhold.
In the safety of the clanhold, the night passed entirely without incident.
24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85)
In the morning, we had a private breakfast in our chambers, and discussed what we wanted to do. Vinya wanted to talk to the guard about what evidence they had -- perhaps there was actual evidence that pointed to Ullard as the killer. We also wanted to talk to Tamna Goldbrew, formerly Tamna Turnstone, the jilted betrothed because we thought she might have an interesting perspective.
We started with the guard. Armed with Tanlot Stonebright’s letter of introduction and some talking up our connection with Captain Althorn in Erlin and Captain Toris in Lonoj, we found ourselves fairly quickly talking with Captain Tulkon SIlversmile. He was pretty tall and burly for a dwarf and had very dark hair.
Vinya: We have some questions about Ullard Stonebright and Jarek Turnstone. We’re trying to find out who did it, because we want justice to be done for all parties.
Elama: Did anyone ever cast speak with dead on his remains?
Captain Silversmile: Yes. He didn’t know who killed him. The last person he talked to was Ullard. He spoke to him on the wall. The last person he saw was Ullard. He saw him on the wall. Those were our five questions.
Vinya: That’s not very conclusive.
Captain Silversmile: Stonebright left Torm Brinnom -- his wagon was seen leaving, but the driver was cloaked and no one could conclusively identify the driver. We have witnesses who saw them arguing, but the reports are questionable and inconsistent. One said they were arguing outside the gate to the Stonebright clanhold. Another said they were outside the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. At about the same time.
Vinya: How close are the holds?
Captain Silversmile: Far enough apart that there couldn’t be a mistake about it. And they couldn’t both be right.
Elderron: Who were the witnesses?
Captain Silversmile: A patrol of guards saw them arguing outside the Stonebrights’. A merchant from the Goldbrews saw them arguing outside the Turnstones’.
Elderron: What about these disappearances we’ve heard about?
Captain Silversmile: There have been too many of those. Far too many. There have been at least 25 people who have disappeared without a trace over the last 25 years. Artok Rockbreaker was maybe the most prominent -- he was well trusted in the community until he started making those bad matches at the end. He was last seen at about the same time as the murder.
Vinya: So Ullard ended the betrothal and then is supposed to have immediately killed Jarek?
Captain Silversmile: No, there was a couple of days between the end of the betrothal and the murder.
Elderron: What was the most recent disappearance?
Captain Silversmile: Tardot Silversmile. He disappeared six months ago. He is my uncle.
Vinya: I’m so sorry!
Captain Silversmile: How would you have known?
Vinya: I’m sorry for your loss.
Elderron: Was he acting strange before he disappeared?
Captain Silversmile: He was short tempered and seemed to think he was more of an elder in our clan than he really was. He’s a fine dwarf, but doesn’t have as much authority as he was claiming
Marxine: What kind of authority?
Captain Silversmile: He was trying to give orders to our forces.
Elderron: What kind of orders?
Captain Silversmile: Like preparing the forces for an attack.
Vinya: Against who?
Captain Silversmile: It didn’t get that far. But Darmon Silversmile, another of my uncles, Tardot’s brother, is the head of our clan militia and they look pretty similar.
Vinya: You have a militia within your clan?
Captain Silversmile: All the clans have a militia. Each clan is responsible for training up a militia, but they're not supposed to deploy them without orders from the King except in the gravest emergencies.
Elderron: How are the mines doing?
Captain Silversmile: I don’t spend much time there. The miners found a seam of adamantine, which has people excited.
Marxine: What’s the timeline for the trial?
Captain Silversmile: The trial will probably happen within half a month. Some of that time will be spent finding three people from other clans, acceptable to both the Stonebrights and the Turnstones, who will be the judges.
After talking to Captain Silversmile, we decided we needed to go talk to Ullard again and get a bit more information and detail from him.
Vinya, to the rest of the party as we went back to the Stonebright clanhold: I feel like something is replacing or duplicating people.
Someone: Like a doppelganger?
Vinya: Maybe. Or someone with a really good disguise kit. Or a disguise self spell. Maybe a few people. I mean people saw Ullard and Jarek arguing in two different places at the same time. So if they’re both right, someone was duplicating Jarek in one place and Ullard in another. It would also explain these disappearances and Captain Silversmile’s uncle acting like he thought he was his brother, the head of the militia. And Jarek’s corpse saying that the last person he saw was Ullard, two days after Ullard left Torm Brinnom.
To Vinya’s surprise, the others didn’t think this was completely nuts.
Back at the Stonebright hold, we asked Ullard for the timeline of events, from his point of view.
Ullard: I found out I was betrothed and went immediately to talk to Jarek. He was more argumentative than usual and really seemed determined that I should go through with the betrothal. We had an argument about it. I came home. I figured out that I wasn’t going to go through with the marriage. So I packed my things and loaded up a cart. The next day I went to talk to Jarek, but he wasn’t at the Turnstone clanhold. The guards seemed weird -- as though they were wondering why I was asking for him. They seemed to think I should know. So I asked to talk to Tamna. I told her I was going to leave Torm Brinnom.
Vinya: Did you ask her where Jarek was?
Ullard: No. I got in my wagon and pulled my cloak around me and headed out of the stronghold.
Marxine: To be absolutely clear, you never spoke with Jarek on the wall?
Ullard: Not between the announcement of my betrothal and me leaving Torm Brinnom. Some places on the wall are kind of secluded and couples have …. meetings there. It’s like a lovers’ walk. So we’d been there before.
Elderron: What was his reason for wanting you to go through with the marriage?
Ullard: He said it would be better for our clans and that Rockbreaker knew what he was doing.
Ullard said that he’s found out since he returned that there was some thought that Jarek left with him, until they found his body.
Vinya had a really good feeling that he was telling the absolute truth.
We talked about where we needed to go from here.
Vinya: Whatever it is that is copying people and however it’s being done, they’re going to be targeting the people selected as judges, I’d think.
We decided that since we were there we could talk to the head of the Stonebright militia -- Annim Stonebright. We asked him if he knew about Tarnot Silversmile trying to order the Silversmile militia to prepare for an attack.
Arnim: He was acting like his brother.
Us: Yeah. Who’s the head of the Turnstone militia?
Arnim: Kemmit Turnstone.
We filed that away in case it became useful later, but decided to go to the Goldbrews to talk to Tanma.
When we got to the Goldbrew clanhold, Vinya stepped up and threw around Hragdar’s name, asking if he was there. He was not. So she then asked if we could speak to Tanma.
We were asked to wait in a waiting room near the gate. After fifteen minutes or so, Tanma came into the waiting room.
Tanma: The last time I spoke to Ullard he came by to speak to Jarek, but he wasn’t there. He asked for me then. He told me that he was leaving Torm Brinnom because he thought it would be easier for my clan to find me another husband if he was entirely gone. And that would be easier than getting Rockbreaker to change his mind.
Vinya: That actually speaks pretty well of him.
Tanma: Yeah. My clan wanted the marriage to happen, but I knew about Ullard and Jarek and I didn’t think it was going to work well for anyone.
She told us that Ullard looked like he was bundled up for travel and had a wagon outside the gate. It was clear to her that he was going to be leaving as soon as they were done talking.
Vinya: When was this?
Tanma: Around lunchtime. Earlier, the day before I guess, I’d talked to Jarek. He seemed upset. He said that Ullard had been acting weird, but he was going to try to talk sense into him. It sounded like Jarek thought Ullard was going to go through with the marriage. When Ullard said he was leaving the next day, I thought he and Jarek had a talk.
Vinya: We’ve heard about people acting strangely around the stronghold. Have you seen anything like that?
Tanma: Well, my dad has been pretty weird. He never seemed like a vengeful sort before, but now, like in the last five years, he’s become determined to have vengeance on the Stonebrights.
Vinya: What’s your father’s name?
Tanma: Ult Turnstone. It’s become a fixation for him. An obsession.
Vinya: Is he the clan elder?
Tanma: No. But my uncle is and my father has his brother’s ear.
We ended on that alarming note.
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