The Edwardsville Chronicles - session 4

Our motley crew of adventurers meet up again in the morning at the Broken Arrow and discuss their next course of action. Aggie is interested, despite being told not to, to go to Two Horn Hill and meet with Parkins, the man in charge of a sacred burial ground on the site to see if they have been experiencing the same rat/wolf problem that the town itself has had to deal with. She is reunited with Opi, the young steward who helped her a few weeks ago, who has seemed to have disappeared since their last encounter. Opi seems to have physically changed: he is wearing armour and seems to be more confident. Aggie is pleased to see that he still has that same sweet tooth, and he’s still not all that bright. Opi explains that he has spent the last two weeks in the seminary and is not allowed to talk about it with anyone, for fear of corporal punishment.

Aggie and Opi meet with Flanders at his shoppe in the market and discuss moving Flanders’ Bakery, ‘Bread Flanders’, into the Broken Arrow, which Flanders agrees is an ideal situation. They head to the Broken Arrow with all of Flanders’ stock and then Kayleth, with her new companion Orla, the Grey Wolf, Larry, Flanders, Aggie (with Opi in tow) decided to head to Two Horn Hill, but not before taking a look around Edwardsville to see if they can find anything out of the ordinary.

The group heads back to the scene of the first rat attack. Flanders goes to his competition, the Edwardsville Bakery. Aggie goes to the Broadhelm Financial Institute to talk to Nestor and Larry and Kayleth go to the rather upscale jewelry store.

Aggie inquires of Nestor why he has so many rat traps set up outside of his store. Nestor says that in the last few weeks, his magical alarm has been set off every night, and he has discovered a number of rats inside his store. He resets his alarm to ignore the rats, set the traps and hopes that this is going to take care of the problem. Nestor also quietly explains to Aggie that he seems to be missing a small sum of money, 75 coppers, that he normally never would have noticed. Aggie and Nestor do some simple business and she leaves.

Larry and Kayleth go into the Jeweller’s shop and meet Dwight, a senile Halfling man who is half-deaf and uses a cone hearing aid. Dwight slips in and out of Common and Halfling and falls asleep mid-conversation. Dwight says that he hasn’t himself noticed any Rats or strange things going on in the store, although his cats have gone missing. Kayleth tries to barter for a magically bracelet and fails miserably.

Flanders and Opi go into the Bakery and talk with Norma under the guise of Opi wanting pies and Flanders contracting them to provide the pastries for the Broken Arrow. Norma seems to be somewhat suspicious, and unwilling to make any commitments to Flanders since she claims her husband makes those decisions. Not long after that, Flanders asks to see the kitchen to make sure it’s up to his standards. At that point, Phillus, the husband, arrives and says that he’s not interested in such a large contract at the moment as they aren’t prepared for that demand just yet but that they should revisit it in the near future. Phillus asks them not so politely to leave.

After they leave, Larry and Kayleth enter the bakery. Aggie points out that she has noticed that one of the corner stones in the alley way is dislodged. Flanders and Aggie go to investigate, while Opi watches the storefront and Larry and Kayleth confront Norma and Phillus. Kayleth actually barges into the kitchen itself, despite being warned not to. Phillus comes after her with a spear and attacks her, knocking her unconscious and nearly killing her. In the melee, they notice that none of their weapons seemed to do any damage to the smaller man. Larry bites him and realises this is not the taste of a human and retreats. Aggie runs into the room as she sees Phillus throw Kayleth’s unconscious body into the foyer and demands they leave. At this point Norma has long left, in hysterics.

As Kayleth is revived, Flanders removes the corner stone and looks into the building but can’t see anything. Aggie decides she’s going to try to talk to Phillus, while Kayleth says she will check out the crawlspace. Larry orders Opi back to the Broken Arrow, tasking him with finding the Were-Hunters, but not before smacking the last slice of pie out of Opi’s hand. Dejected, Opi complies.

Flanders enters the bakery again with Aggie and they enter the back of the kitchen. Flanders samples some of the scones, disappointed at how high the quality is, but they find no sign of Phillus other than some tracks in the flour, leading to a trap door. The tracks get smaller and smaller until they are the size of a rat’s paw prints. Flanders and Aggie deduce that Phillus must be a were-rat.

Kayleth, meanwhile, finds the stock of flour and yeast, other supplies as well as several cat corpses which have been stripped of flesh. Aggie calls out to Phillus that they mean no harm and want to help, but there is no reply. Kayleth leaves the crawlspace and finds Orla in the alley way who is directing her to the corner of the alley where she saw the rat run out of the crawlspace and into the Town. They briefly search for Phillus, but find nothing concrete and decide to move on.

The group meet up again. This time they figure out what to do next. Aggie, in her old age perhaps somewhat confused, argues they must go to Two Horn Hill. The rest of the group disagree but Aggie insists and they spend the rest of the day traveling to the site. When they arrive, they are met by a group of well-armed Soldiers all wearing heraldry of the Faith of the Four and deny them access to the site. The party manage to smooth talk the guards into letting Aggie meet with Parkins at the forward camp. The rest remain behind and Aggie goes up another mile to meet with Parkins who gives them no real information and tells Aggie she’s not supposed to be here. They are escorted away and they return to the Broken Arrow.

When they arrive at the Broken Arrow, they are met by Opi and Lexanna and relay all the information they have learned that day. Concerned, and somewhat confused, Lexanna asks the party to come with her to speak to Andrew Stonemill, the local miller with whom Flanders has a working relationship. She walks over to the door, picks up her crossbow, loads a bolt in and tells them to watch their words, no sudden movements and to be ready for anything. They then head out of the Broken Arrow.