Festival of Halina: Adventurers Gone Wild! (Orsal Judging)

[Rystil Arden]

"Just outside of town under the stars."

 

[El Jefe]

"My guess is that it was mistreated by the local people, poor thing. I'm upset that the poor thing had to get hurt, though..."

"This has gone far enough", the elf thought to himself. Lasair's strange ways had been amusing up until now, but this was enough of a distraction to put the band of caravan guards in danger. If the danger was only a random pair of cutpurses, they should still be on their guard. And if the attack on Scarlet had somehow been targeted against them, they should be doubly wary. Instead, the foolish girl had somehow decided that the mayor was a brute for trying to uphold the honor of his daughter, then decided that the villagers, travelling merchants, and festival-goers were no better just because she had encountered one crooked merchant out of hundreds. Now, she had somehow confabulated the presence of a couple of cutpurses into some sort of magical corruption that even affected the beasts of the forests surrounding the festival. It was madness, madness, but he knew not how to put an end to it.

"Lasair", he said sharply, "it does astonish me how one who is able to see so deeply into the heart of anyone she chooses can be so blind to the nature of the people around her. Look about you! The presence of a handful of evil and dishonorable acts does not besmirch the souls of the multitudes of honest and honorable folk around you. As the kidnappers ran off, I called for them to be stopped. Several festival-goers took off in pursuit for no better reason than to see to it that the festival is secure and the justice is served. Some had not yet returned by the time dear Scarlet had been returned to her tent, tended, and put safely under guard, so dear to their hearts was the notion that these crimes should not be tolerated. You prattle on about how 'the corruption of this village' affects the beasts of the forest, and neglect the task of sifting out those wrong-doers who draw this crowd about them like a cloak to mask their evil deeds. Clear your mind, lady, and tend to the task at hand!"

As he concluded, he realized it was far more severe a tongue-lashing than he would have liked. Yet he could not see how any useful purpose could be served by trying to soften the blow. Indeed, this had been building up for days, and he regretted not speaking more on it earlier. And he was angry -- angry that someone would dare attack someone as innocent and fair as Scarlet, angry that Lasair put more energy into trying to label the mayor a monster and a demon than into comprehending the rich palatte of cultures and peoples she'd been exposed to, and most of all angry that he hadn't the faintest idea of how to track down the blackguards responsible for Scarlet's assault so they could be brought to justice.

He stood there, trying to calm himself, waiting for a reply.

 

[Rystil Arden]

"You are clearly distraught by the plight of your beloved and it has addled your judgment, and so I will choose not to take you to task for your rudeness. However, that does not mean that it was right. I knew that most in these lands would choose to mistreat an outsider as a convenient outlet for their frustration, but I had not expected such close-minded childishness from you. Why don't you try to take out your frustration on the real culprits instead?"

*Lasair says all of this dispassionately without a hint of emotion and then turns away to face the others.*

 

[GnomeWorks]

Troi shakes his head after Oirhandir's diatribe and Lasair's response.

"Sorry ta say, Oirhandir, but ye're not th' only one wi' somethin' awkward goin' on."

"I was walkin' from th' mayor's house ta see th' fortune-teller - somethin' of a hunch - but anyway, I was walkin' an' I saw somebody hide behind a house as I passed by. Looked kinda suspicious, so I followed 'im, whoever it was... right back ta th' mayor's house. I lost th' trail, but I caught th' scent. I checked Daphnie fer th' smell, but she was wearin' perfume, so I dunno if it was her er not. Anyway, I was walkin' back ta th' dancin' goin' on, talked ta Rinaldo a bit, an' then I did some dancin'... an' they all had th' same smell. Not as strong, but they had th' same scent as th' one I tracked ta th' mayor's house."

He sighs. "Now I dunno wha'cha make a that, but I think there's somethin' goin' on 'ere that's hidin' under our noses. Dunno what it is, but there's somethin' tha' jus' seems wrong 'bout this town."

 

[Rystil Arden]

He sighs. "Now I dunno wha'cha make a that, but I think there's somethin' goin' on 'ere that's hidin' under our noses. Dunno what it is, but there's somethin' tha' jus' seems wrong 'bout this town."

*Lasair smiles reassuringly.*

"Thank you Troi. Your detective skills have proven impeccable in the past, so I am sure it is through no fault of your own but rather through cunning on the part of your quarry that you lost the trail. Mostly, I am glad that I am not alone in sensing this...wrongness that you feel as well. It is in the eddying currents of the ziivash and we are not imagining it."

"There have been a lot of strange things going on here, and plenty of petty evils as well...I think perhaps the first true mystery is what possessed the mayor to claim that his daughter had been with Sunny during days when we know for a fact she was not because we were with Sunny all the time as he was drinking himself into the ground."

 

[GnomeWorks]

Troi snaps his fingers.

"Tha's right, I forgot all 'bout that! Th' reason I went ta talk ta th' mayor was 'bout th' thing wi' Sunny. Anyway, he said some people in th' city saw 'im an' Daphnie tagether, an' said they disappeared inta town. An' th' mayor's buddy who runs th' inn saw 'er sneak out one night, an' she came back from th' north field. I think that's when he said he put two an' two tagether, 'cause I said somethin' 'bout not seein' how... 'parently, she's been actin' odd th' last coupl'a days. Not lookin' 'im - I mean th' mayor - in th' eye, avoidin' 'im, an' 'hung up on this Sunny guy.' I think that's when I decided that he might be in on whatever's happenin', so I left, an' headed ta th' dancin' an' whatnot, an'... yeah, I already told that part a th' story. Pretty sure nothin's been left out now."

 

[El Jefe]

Oirhandir considered that perhaps he'd been handling Lasair the wrong way. Up until this point, he'd thought of her as a bright, if ignorant ally. Because of her intelligence, he had felt that she could simply be trusted to do the right thing in most situations, without much supervision. But seeing her more concerned with animals than with people, then calling him childish when he chided her for it shook his faith in her judgement. Perhaps despite her intellect she was better treated like one such as Fang, unaware of the nuances of a complex situation and best directed with short simple phrases. He thought of her blundering with the mayor and tried to drive it from his mind; it wasn't relevant to the current situation and only reminded him of how stubbornly wrong she could be at times.

"...I think there's somethin' goin' on 'ere that's hidin' under our noses. Dunno what it is, but there's somethin' tha' jus' seems wrong 'bout this town."

"Well", thought the elf, "they might both be right about the whole town being in on the mystery, or they might both be wrong, but at least he has her mind on the situation at hand instead of the motivations of wild beasts." "Right under your nose and in your hand as well", he said as he pointed the the cloth in Troi's hand. "You'll find my scent and Scarlet's on it; tell us if you recognize a third." "Now that", he thought, "that will tell us if our biggest problem is a couple of bandits striking at random, or something more sinister."

 

[GnomeWorks]

"Well, that explains why ya gave it ta me." Troi ponders the cloth for a moment. "If this's been in yer pocket, I dunno if it'll 'ave kept th' smell a whoever did it. That, an' I dunno if I can recall what Scarlet smells like... but we'll see."

With that, he takes a deep whiff of the cloth.

 

[Bront]

Troi detects the smell of perfume, one that reminds him of Scarlet, though he's never been paying much attention to her smell when around her so he's not sure, as well as another, though that smell is faint, and overpowered by Oirhandir, who has been sweating out of stress and exersion.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Troi shakes his head. "Sorry, but it's got yer smell all over it. There's somethin' there, I can tell, but I can't get enough of it ta tell what it's from." He pauses. "Where'd this 'appen, anyway? Maybe I can pick up th' smell from there."