Stop the Poaching - Group 2, Session 6

Midday... 3rd day of the Time of Thirar's Carrack, 2171CR

Tanalith stalked stalking out of Duncanson's General Goods, with Thornas following behind to join Aliya and Aryk who had left a bit earlier. This store, owned by Amaric Duncanson, was now (suspiciously?) selling the cages that the merchant had in his wagon two days ago. And when questioned, some of the party members detected some hestitancy in the shopkeeper's voice before answering some questions, and a too-hurried delivery of some other answers. They began to discuss their suspicions among themselves when Zatqualmie ambled over to the group after completing his "back door recon".

Zat informed the group of his discovery of a trap door in the shop's back storereoom - a trap door covered by sacks of flour. So either it was a passage that was never really used, or it was a passage that the shopkeeper wanted concealed. This only added to the suspicions growing within the group.

While a nearly heated argument ensued among the party members as they stood in the street in front of the shop, Aliya quietly wandered off. She headed back to Grisela's baked goods shop - partly to ask a few more questions of her own, and partly because it was time for her next meal. She spoke with Grisela for a while and was able to discover a few things. First of all, Amaric Duncanson was a respected resident of the village. He was one of the five Villave Elders, as had been his father before him. Second, Grisela confirmed Amaric's story about the popularity of caged songbirds among residents of the village, and even showed Aliya her own bright blue warbler. After purchasing two dozen more blueberry minicakes, she left the shop.

By this time, the rest of the group had decided to take their discussions further away from Amaric's shop - they were now in the village square across from Grisela's shop. Aliya joined them there and reported what she had learned from Grisela.

The party decided that there were two courses of action open to them. On the one hand, they could return to Amaric immediately, announce that they were acting on behalf of the Fey Council, and demand to search his shop - including the basement, of course. But accusing a VIllage Elder in broad daylight, with no clear evidence in hand could have repercussions. Their other choice was to return that night and attempt to sneak/break into the shop to explore the basement in a clandestine manner. If anything was found, their accusations would then have merit. After going back and forth several times, they decided on the latter approach.

Since it was not yet noon, the party now had most of a day on its hands. They then remembered that Elannia Altuliel, the elven singer from the Traveling Troupe, had given them one more contact: Two-Twist the Satyr who lived just outside town. They decided to spend the afternoon finding the satyr.

Following the directions Elannia provided, the group found the satyr's glen and Thornas proceeded to sing the "calling song" that Elannia had taught them. Unfortunately for them, the first creatures to answer this call were two Quickling gremlins. These nasty creatures announced with cackling glee that they enjoyed "playing with the Slowfolk", and proceeded to attack the party with their tactics of rapidly dashing in, slashing with their shortswords, and then dashing off to stay out of reach of their opponents. Aryk, who in typical fashion had stepped forward to challenge the creatures, took the brunt of these attacks. The rest of the party, in the meantime, took advantage of their ranged weapon skills - something the Quicklings had apparently not counted on.

Between accurate shots from Tanalith's bow, the slings wielded by Thornas and Aliya, and Zat's hand crossbow, one of the creatures was brought down, and the other ran off wounded. As it disappeared into the forest, the sounds of "polite clapping" were heard -- Two-Twist and a pair of satyr friends had arrived to see the end of the battle.

It took the party a little while to convince Two-Twist that they were "friendly", and that Elannia trusted them. He then, after rambling on about how the fey parties he frequented were suffering because fewer fey were taking part, he mentioned that he had a satyr aquaintance south of the Dryad River who was also seeing the same disappearance of lesser fey creatures. And then he mentioned the humans in the forest; his acquantance had seen a group just two nights before.

Two-Twist offered to introduce the party to his friend so they could perhaps get more info from him. Arrangements were made for the party to return to town, secure a rowboat, and meet Two-Twist. They would cross the river together, and Two-Twist would bring the group to his friend. With those plans in place, the party left the glen, hurryinb back to town so they could meet the satyr on time.

The session ended here