It soon becomes evident that any and all attempts to engage the townmaster about the Rebrands runs into a wall. He fears them more than any line of questioning. He skirts questions by changing subjects and not answering the questions being asked. To Jaliera he says "You were the first to answer my posted notice about the orcs. So your were first. I intend to hire you, if you take the job."
Kriv drew himself up to his full height, and let the truth of his feelings show as great displeasure on his features and as venom dripping from his words.
"You are deliberately evading any and all questions concerning the infestation of Redbrand brigands. A brutal gang of lawbreakers, criminals, guilty of every crime it is your Duty to prevent, against the people whom your life is devoted to protecting. Why, then, with this threat menacing this town and you abjectly refusing to address it, should you remain in charge? Why, with such crimes committed on your watch, with your knowledge and tacit acceptance, should you be alive when I leave this room? Treason is a capital crime."
"Easy friend. I suspect there is more here than he is saying. But I feel he thinks he has no choice."
"Tell me sir. Are these people threatening you through your family. We can help. We will help, if that is the case. Are they holding some of your family?"
No matter what is said and asked, the townmaster continues to answer in circles and not finger the Redbrands. Intimidation, persuasion, cajoling and begging all fail to change his tune. He shares no more and offers no other leads.
OOC: This is "box text", in other words, a dead end and an exercise in futility.
Sildar Hallwinter - Townmaster Hall
"I have heard enough. I'll be back here tomorrow," he says directly to the townmaster. He does his best to hold back his frustration. "You all can decide if you want to hunt down those orcs. That is a sound first step to securing this town," he suggests to the group.
"Order, true order, needs to prevail here. We shall prove our intent and resolve through the removal and presentation of Orcish heads. Then bandit heads. Then the heads of sympathisers and collaborators. This town will know order, no matter how harsh the lesson must be."
He turned his back on the Townmaster, and headed towards the exit.
Kriv is very.. determined. A good thing in some ways, not in others. Well the townmaster should be in no doubt about Kriv's intentions anyway. As the dragonborn exits, she manages a sympathetic smile for Harbin before following.
As the group move out of the Townmaster Hall, she reminds them of something.
"I seem to remember someone mentioned a boy who had found a tunnel. Might be useful to find out exactly where it is as it is likely to be orc related."
She shrugs at the exchanges. "Personally, I'd like some rest and a fresh start in the morning. It seems there's interesting things happening everywhere you turn in this town. Who knows what a few hours wandering around and talking to others might reveal?"
The group leaves the townmaster hall and starts to make it's way back to the inn. They run into Davroar on the way back. He had not been noticed as he scouted the house in the orchard, or so it seems to him because of the lack of reaction by the man in the house.
Those leaving the townmaster's hall are disappointed in the paucity of answers coming from the fat, old man. He was spooked and kept quiet about the Redbrands. Sildar walked ahead with Kriv on the way back to the inn and said to the dragonborn, "It seems that we share ideals about law and order. I believe that there is an orc problem. It would be good if and your friends deal with that first thing tomorrow. I'll see what I can do to deal with Harbin in a less intimidating manner. I'll meet you at the townmaster hall when you come to claim your bounty."
The group reaches the inn and Sildar says his good nights as he marches up to his room. The taproom has started to empty out.
OOC: I'm guessing that by real-time tomorrow it'll be game-time morning.
He bids the Officemaster fairwell with a respectful smile and nod of the head and the words,
"Find us at the inn if you decide to join us. Your attachment to this office has held you back and made you a lesser man, inspite of broadening your belt."
At the inn, he immediately heads to the bar for more aquavit to chase away the chill.
Morning comes. A late rising at that, considering the time the group finally went to bed. You come down from your rooms to find that breakfast has already been served and the worker's and tradesmen of Phandalin are already at their businesses. It is close to 10am.
As you come down to the common room, Trilena greets you with a nod and a smile and disappears into the kitchen. She returns a minute or two later with plates of steaming hot pancakes and honey, bisquits, sausages, assorted fruit and kaffe and fresh goat's milk.
"Good morning." She says. "I figured you'd be getting up a bit late so I saved breakfast for you."
"Your friend, Sildar, waited for you for a while but then left. He said he was going on ahead to the Townmaster's Hall to talk to Harbin and you could catch up with him there later today and that you know what to do next. It was something about taking care of a problem outside of town."
I have marked with red stars on the map the places of interest that you have visited. I also marked off the path that Davroar took last night when he went "scouting" in wolf form. I will create a list of key rumors and information for you to follow up on in this thread tonight.
ooc: The one that I guess I added by mistake is the last one, about Sister Garaele leaving town and returning hurt, but let's just say you just heard it. I'll fix. And yes, Zeim and I are sharing some posts so it was a case of poor editing on my part
The information about Thel Drendar being murdered is (buried) in this post
DM
As Trilena starts to head back to the kitchen she stops, turns back and says, "Oh. Sister Garaele stopped by too. She said that she had met Karok yesterday and she wanted to talk to him and his friends. Did you know that she had left town a few days ago and returned injured? We were worried about her but Tymora healed her wounds."
"Thank you Trilena for breakfast and for the information, both are appreciated."
She smiles and the aromas from the breakfast make her realise just how hungry she is. She cannot believe how long she had slept. At home she never has that luxury, there are chores to do first thing and then training to follow. She could get to like this life.
She takes a bite of a sausage, chewing thoughtfully before looking around the others.
"Well I think we have quite a lot to do today. It sounds like the tunnel the boy found and the Sister's injuries might well be tied into the orc problem and I think we should investigate them. Dealing with the orc problem first might help to build our reputation here and might cow the Redbrands and we might gain support from the townfolk if they believe we can deal with them."
She sits down and eats lightly, as is her habit. Fruit and some kaffe mostly.
She nods towards Jaliera. "Could be. Let's not forget about Gundren either. I'd like to ask around a bit more and see if anyone has heard of Cragmaw Castle or this Spider person."
The Dragonborn nodded in agreement with Jaliera's words, commenting,
"I'm inclined to agree. Interrogating those Orcs about Cragmaw seems our most likely lead on Rockspeaker, in addition to the benefits you mention. It's a vermin name for a vermin place, the humans here are unlikely to be aware of it."
"A quiet approach though has much to recommend it. I'm also happy to verify the location of the tunnel though we may want to gather everyone before we explore too far. If we can talk to the boy, find and scout the location around the tunnel and talk to the woman that was hurt, we could get together for lunch and discuss a plan."
She chuckles when Chandan rolls over, and louder at his fond glance. Taking a pair of sausages and rolling them up in a pancake, she takes some grape stems and pins it together, dips it into the honey, and tosses it to the Monk.
"Can't have you toppling over from hunger in the middle of a fight."
Turning back to Jaliera she adds, "I met a couple of miners last night who talked about a Miners Guild sort of place on the edge of town. They might know information there about what lies outside of the village."
Favouring the sausages over the pancakes, the Dragonborn considered,
"I am in favour of swift and decisive action. Let us be focused upon one threat at a time, and apply overwhelming force. Starting with the Orcs. We have the lead provided in the recruitment flyer. Do we need to augment that with further rumour or will it suffice?"
Breakfast plates start to empty and the group gets ready for a long day ahead of them. There are many paths they can take but the focus seems to be on handling the orc problem. When they take care of that there's still much to do.
Sildar is not at breakfast. When Elsa brought Kriv's breakfast over she says to him, "Oh, that friend of yours was down early today. He said to tell you that he'll meet up with you at the town master's hall later today once you've taken care of ... the problem ... outside of town." She giggled when she said the problem and she said it with a fake mysterious tone, as if she thought it was funny. She did not, of course, know the exact nature of the problem.
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Just want to know if I can act on any of this.
