Valldel Amakiir - 3rd Level Male Elven Rogue
Akadum Ironbeard - 3rd Level Male Dwarf Fighter
Dolin Stoneflare - 3rd Level Male Dwarf Light Cleric
Kethry - 3rd Level Female Human Wizard
8 June 981, Wednesday Continued
Hot and sticky
Valldel asks after the Lamp Oil Shop and Urgritte tells him that it is locallyfamous as the proprietor has figured out some way to produce lamp oil locally rather than having to import it. It is quite cheap, but for some odd reason he will only sell a pint at time to any one person or group.
Dolin is intrigued by the Ship which Valdell saw out behind the Bog Witches shack. He goes there and sees a ship way too large for the swamp. It is still a skeleton and there is middle aged man working on it. He is Tom Grayson, a retired carpenter. He says that he has had a vision that there will be a great flood. The people of Helix can be saved by this ship. Dolin looks at the ship and can see some obvious flaws, and the plans make no sense. Dolin takes his leave.
Valldel goes to see the Bowyer, an elf called Valeron. He has nicely made bows and arrows and things he claims made from Giant Spider Silk found in the Thornwild Forest. Valldel pays a bunch for a cloak of Giant Spider Silk. Valldel tells him of his plans to explore the Barrowmaze. Valeron warns him to stay out of the Barrowmoor at night; undead prowl the swamp. Also he has heard the maze harbors a degenerate race that captures adventurers and sells them for slaves.
Kethry, Jon Fairbrain, and Akadum go to the Last Stop Inn and Tavern. There they encounter Professor Illkin. He is very excited. He tells them there is a betrothal party going on here. This is the first step in the local Solstice Festival which the locals call the Marriage Games. Apparently all the couples who have pledged their troth in the last year compete in some physical and mental contests, with the winners doing some sort of great service for the town. He is not clear what this might be. He asks Kethry to pledge her troth with one of his gradaute students so they could compete in the Marriage Games. It would make a great book describing the life ways of the primitive Shud Folk. He would happily acknowledge Kethry in the forward.
Kethry is disgusted and hits Illkin with a Charm Person. She tells him to go upstairs to his room and do some reading. His gradaute students should join him. Plus she hopes he never speaks to her again. He does so dragging his students away from the growing party.
Kethry spends time copying the spell Blur into her spell book.
The others arrive and the party is in full swing. Dolin seeks out the clergy. He avoids the local head of the Temple, a priest of Zeus, but finds one Catronia a preistess of Ares. She is here with a paladin of Ares who is on a final quest before he goes off to join the war effort. The Paladin is a monster in combat with his heavy armor and two handed sword, but she can still take him with quickness and cunning in unarmed combat. They came her on the advice of the Paladin's Squire, who is really a jerk, as he is a big fan of the Bumblebee Bandit series of novels and came here to try to get an early copy of the latest novel, The Battle of the Bumblebee Bandit. She cannot understand how any one can waste any time on such useless drivel that borders on pornography. She notes the betrothed woman is Jessica Reuter, who is of the family of the printers making the Bumblebee Bandit book. She is not a local and does not really know what the point of the Marriage Games is, and hopes the Paladin will move on to find a worthy quest, but that jerk Squire is the reason they are here.
The party is very nice with an extended family of Shud Folk providing entertainment. There is an old woman who tells fortunes with Tarot cards, there is a pair of brothers who perform Shud Folk ballads, notably Ain't No Grave:
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
When I hear that trumpet sound I'm gonna rise right out of the ground
Ain't no grave can hold my body down
Well, look way down the river, what do you think I see?
I see a band of angels and they're coming after me
Ain't no grave can hold my body down
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
Well, look down yonder Triton put your feet on the land and sea
But Triton don't you blow your trumpet 'til you hear it from me
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
Ain't no grave can hold my body down
Well, meet me, Hades, meet me, meet me in the middle of the air
And if these wings don't fail me I will meet you anywhere
Ain't no grave can hold my body down
There ain't no grave can hold my body down
Kethry quite likes the song. There is a very well done puppet show featuring puppets that look like the betrothed couple.
The exhuberence is interrupted when one of the Shud Folk musical brothers apparently propositions the bride to be. A scuffle broke out with the girl kicking her would be suitor and the girls father slugging him. The Shud man, who is quite drunk, vows that all will learn what "Shud pride" means and how Shud men behave when “bitch gaje” reject them. The father of the bride was screaming about not paying for the show and wanting the whole crew of Shud-folk locked up. The old Shud woman curses the new couple with bad fortune.
The party breaks up abruptly, and the party turns in to their rooms at the Last Stop.
9 June 981, Thursday
Cool and partly cloudy
There is a great deal of commotion early in the morning and the party awakens to discover the betrothed girl, Jessica Reuter is dead. She was found in the courtyard of the Reuter Printers and Bindery with a knife wound in the back and slashed throat. The local constables, three inexperienced youths as the local sheriff is fighting on the Northern Front and the Paladin of Ares followed a trail of bloody footprints to the wagons of the Shud Folk. There they found a pig slaughtered ritualistically, the puppet of the bride hacked to pieces, and the Shud Man who caused all the trouble last night covered in blood. They decided to gather up all the Shud Folk (old woman, two brother musicians, puppeteer family (husband, wife, three small children)) and throw them in the local lock up, and prepare a burning for them since they are obviously guilty and demon worshippers.
The party is unconvinced. Kethry suggests finding all the other potential brides as obviously this is how to win the Marriage Games. Investigating the bloody foot prints, Dolin notes how precise and even the trail is between the Book Bindery and Shud Folk wagon camp. He also notes the foot print blood seems to be pig's blood even though the foot prints lead from the Bindery to the wagon camp. Talking with the one young constable who is guarding the wagon camp they learn the pig was simply sitting in the middle of the camp where there is not a large pool of blood. Looking in the wagons for further clues, such as the murder weapon, they find a blood stained yellow and black cloak which seems out of place among the Shud Folk clothing which tends towads dark and ornate. It matches the signature clothing of the Bumblebee Bandit.
They go to the Constablary where they find the Shud Folk in cells with the crying children separated from their parents. Speaking to the old woman, in whose wagon they found the blood stained cloak, she tells them she has never seen such a hideous garment, and her nephew was just drunk, acting stupid, and afterwards passed out. There is no way he could have committed the murder.
They head over to the Book Bindery where to their surprise they find the family hard at work. They speak with Kurt Reuter, father of the dead woman. He tells them the Bumblebee Bandit book, the worst sort of mind rotting junk, is a big deal for the family, they are on a tight deadline, and work distracts them from their grief. It is what Jessica would have wanted them to do. They ask if any one showed interest in the new Bumblebee Bandit novel. He mentions that the Paladin's Squire turned up a few days ago trying to get an advanced copy. They told him to go away; they would be in breach of their contract if any advance copies got out. He made a pest of himself.
Dolin asks if any copies are missing. Kurt tells him no, the printed copies are carefully packed and no one has messed with them. There were galley proofs which they printed some time ago to check if all was OK and they have one in their safe. Dolin suggests they check and upon opening the safe they find the book missing. Kurt is beside himself. Did his daughter really loose her life over a stupid Bumblebee Bandit novel? Who would do such a horrible thing?
Dolin formulates a plan with Kethry and Valdell. They will go to the Temple. He and Kethry will approach Catronia, distract the Squire, and Valdell will go to the Squire's room and look for evidence. Kethry suggests she could raise the pig or girl and ask them who killed them. Dolin and the others think this is likely to be a very bad idea. Kethry is disgusted, but goes along with Dolin's plan.
At the Temple they find the Paladin and Squire are in a courtyard practicing with wooden swords and padded armor. Catronia greets Dolin warmly and he tells her of their suspiscions. They show her the blood stained yellow and black cloak. She says the Squire, who is named Fastonius, has a Bumblebee Bandit costume which he wears to party's and such. Are they really telling her that he killed some young woman to get his hands on a trashy novel? She leads them up to his room. There is a chest which Valdell is able to open. It is filled with Bumblee Bandit novels and there is a galley of The Battle of Bumblee Bandit. They gather it and return below to confront the Squire.
The Squire and Paladin are finished sparring, and the party and Catronia accuse Fastonous of the terrible crime displaying the blood stained cloak and the galley of the new novel. This seems to unhinge him, and he declaims, "No evil doers can capture the Bumblebee Bandit!" as he runs toward an impossibly tall wall with the clear intent to leap over it. Dolin hits him with a Hold Person. The Paladin, Tiberious, is at first incredulous, but when Dolin and Catronia tell him of their evidence he admits the merit of their case. He picks up the limp Squire and tells them they should head to the Constablary to free the Shud Folk and see this wretch gets his just punishment.
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