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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Viktyr Gehrig" data-source="post: 1256882" data-attributes="member: 9249">At the gates of Pike Falls: After finishing a good night's rest, our intrepid heroes walked the rest of the road to Pike Falls, arriving slightly after noon. Due to the recent military emergency, the town militia had been called into active duty, and two of the local warriors were dutifully standing guard, halberds at the ready. One of the guards spotted the party and called out. "Halt and state your business!" The two guards crossed their halberds and blocked the town's gates. Dagan stepped forward with the Baron's letter of authority and presented it to the guard. "We are here on the Baron's business. Stand aside and let us pass." The guard examined the papers skeptically, suspicious of the strange travellers, in particular the planetouched and the small child. "You're the Baron's men?" Ortac grinned mischievously at the guards. "Yes! We're here for your women!" he announced, and then gave a slight bow. Dagan shook his head and shushed the tiefling, trying to handle the guards professionally. The second guard chimed in, "I've heard of you people." He showed no signs of relaxing his guard or standing aside. Impatiently, Dagger looked up at the guards. For a brief moment, her eyes flashed malevolently, but just as quickly, she resumed her innocent appearance. "You better let us in, mister. Kitty's hungry." She stared the first guard in the face steadily, until he and his partner backed down and allowed the party passage. As the others walked into town to arrange their accomodations and question the townsfolk, Dagan and Dagger stayed behind with the guards, in order to find out what they knew. Dagan started first, since the guards were more likely to take him seriously. "So, guys... where are these goblins coming from? The Baron's only told us that they were attacking here from outside his territory. Paint me a picture." The guard relaxed, switching from suspicion to shoptalk readily. "Most of them seem to be coming out of the west, towards the mountains. We get smaller groups out of the southwest, in the badlands and the marshes. We think they're under the banner of someone powerful, though-- not like a goblin chief. They're too well-organized to be on their own." Dagan nodded, and then Dagger asked her question. "Is there anything strange going on in town? Something other than the goblins?" Something in her twisted intuition told her that someone in town was connected somehow to the goblins, and she wanted to investigate this before anything else. The guard leaned down to talk to her. "You should stay away from Old Man Wilson, miss. He's a creepy old hermit, and we try to keep all the children away from him. Some of us think he's a powerful warlock." The quaint term for arcanist amused Dagger, and she barely suppressed a giggle. "Oh? Where does Old Man Wilson live?" The guard hesitated for a moment, and Dagger pressed. "Tell me... tell me now." Dagger pushed the guard's mind, and he relented; he pointed to a shack slightly outside the rest of the locals' homes.  Giggling, Dagger suddenly broke off into a run towards Old Man Wilson's shack. After a second, the guard called after her, "Miss! Miss... I said to stay away from Old Man Wilson... he's dang--" Dagger turned around, still giggling. "I heard what you said." Then, she was off again. Swearing under his breath, Dagan took off after her. She was already halfway to the shack and had a good head start. Standing on the old man's doorstep, she turned and asked Dagan, "Are you coming with me or coming after me, Dagan?" Dagan shook his head. "We rest first, old man later." Dagger shook her head in turn. "Old man now. I'm not tired." Dagan stood firm. "It's naptime, Dagger." He reached for her arm to lead her back into town, where the others were waiting for them. Dagger took a step back, out of his reach. "Then take a nap, Dagan. You didn't sleep very well at all last night, did you?" She fixed him with a piercing stare, which he merely returned. "This will only take a minute. Then we'll take a nap with the others." Dagan shook his head; he already knew he'd lost. Again. Dagger knocked on Old Man Wilson's front door politely. She heard someone inside moving, but noone answered. After a few seconds, she knocked again and called "I know you're in there, Mister Wilson. You're being very rude." She paused a second to stroke the kitten on her shoulder. When Old Man Wilson still refused to open his door, Dagger pushed the door open herself and walked in. Dagan stayed behind, in the doorway. "You should've answered your door, Mister Wilson. It's not nice to keep your guests waiting. And my kitty's hungry." Old Man Wilson looked up at her from his cooking, a look of surprise and irritation on his face. He quickly faked a look of bemused helplessness and turned back to the stove. Something was very wrong with this man, and both Dagan and Dagger could feel it. Curiosity (and paranoia) piqued, Dagger determined to investigate. "Oh, you and your friend are just in time for supper, dearie. I made sausage and mash." The old man took a black iron pot out of his oven. "Enough for all of us." He smiled, and shivers ran down Dagger's spine. Dagan was merely suspicious, and stood stoicly in the doorway. "Have a seat, have a seat. Supper will be on the table in a minute." He scooped out three platefuls of mashed potatoes and placed several pieces of sausage on each. Dagger and Dagan both hesitated a moment, but then took seats. Suddenly, Dagger felt an insistent nuzzling at her ear, and then a soft, desparate whisper. "He's a bad evil man, Dagger. Kill him." Dagger looked puzzled, and then turned to look at her kitten. "Kill him now, Dagger. Kill him and run away while you still can." Meanwhile, Dagan and Old Man Wilson sat across from each other, both poking at their dinners, waiting for the other to take the first bite. Dagan decided that the old man had no way of knowing they were coming, so figured that the food must be safe. He stirred glumly at his potatoes for a moment with his fork, and then picked up a piece of sausage. It was overcooked, but at least it was meat. He took another couple of bites. "Eat up, eat up," the old man urged. "No sense letting good food get cold." Dagger tried to feed the kitten a piece of sausage on the end of her knife, but the kitten refused. Shrugging, Dagger then took a bite herself. Satisfied it wasn't poisoned, she began to eat a little of the potatoes. "The guards say you're a bad man, Mister Wilson. Why do they say that?" Dagger smiled sweetly at the old man, while her kitten pleaded with her to stab him in his guts and go find the others. Dagger silently willed the kitten to stop, but the pleas grew more and more urgent. "KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!" Dagger twitched and then smiled again. "Oh, you know how peasants are. Stupid creatures, really. Subsist on rumours and lies." Old Man Wilson cheerily consumed his sausage and mash, which as the dinner went on, seemed more and more sinister. "They fear what they don't understand, and hate what they fear." He smiled. Dagger frowned. "My kitty doesn't like you, either, Mister Wilson." She lunged across the table at him with her knife, but the table was too large. He jumped up from the table and lunged into the shack's back room, slamming the door behind him. Dagan stared at her in shock a moment while she charged after the old man, throwing the door open. The back room was empty, despite there being no other exits. Old Man Wilson had vanished.</blockquote>

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