Clues and Conspiracies

Following through with the infromation, they found the night before the party once more searched out any remaining saboteurs before the siege arrived.   Stela and Besella headed to the barracks to find the general where they saw him talking with various leaders of the city's defense. As they spoke Stela recognized the voices of both members they had heard talking the night before: a local blacksmith named Borin Kaldros and Captain Drosvik Malren. Stela subtly messaged General Roki and shared their findings with Besella back at his headquarters. He warned against being too rash as Captain Malren is a well respected military officer and an erroneous accusation could make the rest of the soldiers more apprehensive with providing any help. Additionally, he said that Malren would be splitting his time between teaching additional fighters to shoot from horseback and training some villagers in town in basic swordplay.   They eventually headed out to Soldier's Respite, the other inn inside the city, and were able to make a few coin with Besella's bardic skills while Stela listened in on various conversations between patrons and the innkeeper, Borovik Surov. Eventually, Stela remembered why this inn had seemed somewhat familiar: it was the place both Gourm and Caldwell had nearly been poisoned during their first trip to Tafoder.   Gourm, Caldwell Weatherbey, and Bhenhi decided to go look into the pawnbroker. It took a while to find the location, but eventually they recognized the ramshackle hut of a hoarder along one of the canals as none other than his storefront. Inside, both floors were covered floor to ceiling with layers of random items at various levels of disrepair. Caldwell Weatherbey slipped into the backroom while Gourm kept Garet busy searching for a variety of cooking supplies and cookbooks. To avoid suspicion, he found himself walking out with half dozen knew cookware and a couple tomes of recipes to boot. His distraction allowed Caldwell to find a set of ledgers with numbers not matching up with a primary buyer and seller: Borivik Surov. Additionally, he found a variety of Vitraxine items that had been marked as sold in the ledgers but were clearly collected together for some purpose instead. He pocketed a telescopic staff that, while unsure of the exact use, was the most powerful Vitraxine artifact in the back room. Bhenhi found themselves wandering the aisles, sifting through items until they found a pair of gloves lost amongst a set of nick-knacks with vitraxine embroidered throughout the design. Bhenhi was able to convince a first reluctant Garet to purchase, though felt an uneasy feeling as his mood shifted after noticing their staff strapped to their back.   The party grouped together and set plans to focus their night search on the innkeeper and blacksmith to gather more intel and hopefully evidence before heading to the captain's manor the following morning.  

Total XP: 65 (133)

• 15xp for finding a potential saboteur in the innkeeper of the Soldier's Respite (Caldwell/Stela)
• 20xp for finding incriminating evidence on Garet the pawnbroker (Gourm/Caldwell)
• 10xp for Gourm RP in distracting Garet to allow the others to search the shop
• 10xp for Stela RP in communicating with General Roki and gaining useful information about how to investigate the captain
• 10xp for Besella RP in letting Gourm and the other party members know about Stela findings without alerting anyone or risk the party upsetting an applecart

 

Losses

• 6s for the cookware and cookbooks (Gourm)
• 37g donated to Besella for talismans (Gourm)
• 50g donated to Besella for talismans (Bhenhi)
• 4g to purchase vitraxine gloves (Bhenhi)
• 13g donated to Besella for talismans (Stela)
• 120g for talismans (Besella)