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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 4239132" data-attributes="member: 11760">Chapter 8 The Dark Waters of Moss PondIt is midday on the 12th day of Rain, in the 721st year of the Imperial Age.It is warm and sunny, perhaps the first really warm day of the year, as Ebuferpaly Potentloins marches through the Tulgey Wood, on the way to the Black Tower. The dwarf Emus Graymullet and his dog follow after, while the ranger Hazel Sawyer moves through the woods parallel to the other two, concealed by their noise, sure that the gnome is leading them into a trap.The Wizard of Green Mountain, Khenemet-Apep, has sent word for Bufer to visit him, as he has news of the kobolds' plot to acquire a second dragon scale as part of whatever their ultimate scheme is.Meanwhile, in Middleborough, Heath Leach sits in a jail cell facing the town center, watching the glockenspiel on St. Yessid's in the Woods act out its little scene every hour on the hour. The baron has been busy for the past week, and he's had to wait on his trial for murder.In Maidensbridge, Deputy Tucker Gallaway arrives at the front door of Constable Ward Bridger's home as a group of residents scatter, panicked looks on their faces. Emmerson Grant trails him, having seen the nervous looks on villagers' faces while scraping the steps of the chapel clean.The constable's gaze takes in them both as they arrive and he wastes no time getting to the point: "Two children have gone missing in the woods. We need to find them before dark.""Whose children?" Tucker asks, instantly all business. "Which part of the woods, and who was the last to see them?""It's the Kramer twins, Pentagruel and Rutiger, the children of Lars by his first wife," the constable says. Emmerson and Tucker know them: A pair of tow-headed 7 year olds. "Their stepmother says they were playing in the orchard. When she came looking for them to give them lunch, she just found their toys, but no sign of the children. I'm going to sit down with the parents and see if they might know anything. I need you, Tucker, to go look around the orchard. Emmerson, your help would be appreciated as well.""Any detail would help us, no matter how trivial. Is there a glade, an underbrush or even a cave where they like to play?" Emmerson asks. The child of a large family, he's familiar with this sort of problem."I don't know; that's why I'm going to talk to their father. But while I'm there, I need others looking for them. If they've just gotten stuck up a tree, I don't want to waste time by not looking for them. I'll meet you at the orchard shortly.""Well, into the woods with us, then," Tucker says, snapping off a salute to the constable, and heads for the door. He knocks one knuckle against Emmerson's armor. "Come on, Clanky. If nothing else, those kids will know someone's out looking for them. If they're lost, then can just move toward the sound.""Either that or a few bars of 'Onward, Onward, Brave Soldiers.' Just kidding." "I'll say. We want to get the kids close to us, not run for the Kem border.""Hey, it's not my fault Bufer hasn't taught us the 'Pantsing of Mithra.'"Before heading to the orchard, the pair stops by Emmerson's quarters and pick up his backpack and lantern, preparing for anything.Concerned parents and older children mill around the orchard, and when they spot Tucker, they swarm him, everyone speaking at once:"... snatched by kobolds!""A huge wolf, the size of a pony, I tell ya!""... stepmother of theirs, never trusted her ...""They always were talking about going up to Green Mountain ...""Deputy Gallaway, what are you going to do about it?"</blockquote>

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