If at first you don't succeed, try try again

Criminal Activity

After meeting at the inn, the party split up to cover two different scouting objectives in the interests of catching the thieves in the act.

Leutgar and Roderic spent the night in the large copse of trees to the east of the keep, where they overheard some shrill exclamations from the cottages in the distance, thought they were soon silenced as everyone went to bed.

At the same time Aster and Alfgar went to the trees on the far eastern edge of the planted fields. Alfgar hid in a bush and Aster in a tree to the north of him. The spotted a faint glimpse of a pale figure in the water, which Alfgar ran to get a better look at, only to see it vanish into the trees across the leat.

When they all met up the next morning at the Brass Stamp, Alfgar was excited to tell the others about the giant white raccoon he had seen.

The party then split up again to do more investigations up at the farms.

Aster went to inspect the fields where the most recent thefts (a few half-grown cabbages) had come from, after much tracking finding that at least one or more tracks tended back towards the same area of the leat where Alfgar had seen his raccoon.

While Aster was in the fields, he paid witness to Alfgar being dragged north eastward by Agenilde with Leutgar in tow as she lead the to the spot where she had seen the ghost again the previous evening.

Roderic in the mean time had headed up the far side of the leat, trying to quarter the area carefully, but found little before he had to make his way back down, up and around to meet up with the others at the cottages as the afternoon began to fade.

After conferring, Aster was determined to stake out the spot on the leat bank where Alfgar had seen the raccoon, and the others headed up the bank to find Agenilda's ghost... and got a lot more than they'd bargained for.

The terrifying apparition of the white lady with the black pits for eyes, and sharp fangs stopped her song to stare at them as they approached, then called out, or sang, or screamed... causing Roderic to run back south down the bank in fear... and a a terrified Leutgar watched her jump into the water and vanish, before he too panicked thinking that she might be on her way to Aster, who was all alone.

As Aster waited hidden in a tree by the bank, he heard the thunder of feet headed towards him from the north, and dropped down upon his unsuspecting teammates which didn't help their state of panic at all. Eventually they were able to calm down enough to explain their fright... and while that explanation was on-going, Aster's continued vigilance paid off, and he saw a flash of movement among the greenery on the far bank.

He fired a single warning shot from his bow, before taking off across the leat after the now-fleeing creature, with the others following along behind him at their best speed.

As the 4 raced through the darkened forest, they began to hear the squeals and grunts of a sounder of swine... which they came upon in a small clearing made by a fallen tree, attacking 3 young, starveling children.

After a fierce battle with the pigs, the party took some trophies before taking some time to coax the fearful youngsters to return towards town with them, especially as one of them was injured.

As the approached town Aster once again separated himself from the group to pursue his secret agendas, while the party found themselves forced to bring the children to the temple if they wished for middle of the night medical attention...

The ...kindly... priest Heremon promised he would heal the children and ensure that they received proper care before the monks ushered the party away from the sanctuary without them....