Against the Cult: Party at the Mill (1.1)

Sara and Quest manage to navigate Shalla down the ladder (in the end I decided against any kind of check for this - Sara has had enough slapstick for one encounter. Just assume that it's an awkward challenge and leave it at that), and the mystic leads her past the surrendered thug to the bedroom. Shalla gives a little gasp at the sight of the thug, but the presence of her rescuers turns her fear into anger and she snarls at him. He retreats into the room where Xana is still organizing the dead bodies and their belongings. Sara finds a ewer of water and cup on one of the bedside tables and pours some for the woman, who accepts it gratefully.

Xana peers suspiciously at the man, and something about her gives him the willies, and he makes his way meekly down the stairs in front of her. Downstairs, he joins the group of men on the stairs under the watchful eye of Klak; they barely dare to breathe, so stern is the dwarf's countenance.

The warlock gnome deposits the last of the weapons she brought down from upstairs into a pile: six cudgels, two knives, four daggers, four shortbows (there were six, but two were destroyed in the fighting), and 22 usable arrows.

The mob of grim-faced villagers, the innkeeper Devane among them, pulls up short at Durren's pleasant greeting. "What'd he say?" someone says, and, from the back, "What's going on? Did we get them yet?" They mutter, some angry, some confused, and then someone says "There's one o' them, on th' ground!" A grizzled older man with several scars on his face and muscular arms steps forward just as Durren turns to go back inside and browse the weapons. The veteran warrior kneels at the crushed and broken body outside the door. He stands up and says "Looks like maybe we weren't needed." He turns back to the group and calls out. "This one's not going to trouble anyone any more. It may be that the trouble's over, and the mill's safe. You three brothers," he says, indicating some robed monks, "...go inside and check it out!" He turns back to Durren as the three monks move swiftly and silently into the mill, one to each doorway.

Inside, Durren sifts through the pile of weapons that Xana is building. There are a number of good shortbows usable from horseback or on foot, a quantity of arrows, a few small knives, and a few longer daggers. Too long to throw well, but good for close-in fighting. There's also an assortment of cudgels or clubs - basically fire-hardened rods of wood about the length of a grown human forearm: good for bashing and smashing drunks in a bar fight, but not so effective as a good blade.

Seeing the husband and wife reunited does please Quest, but there is more work to be done.

"Keb, we will tell what we saw here. I'm inclined to believe your story that you were forced to attack Hale in order to protect your wife. The men we captured may corroborate your story as well, but you still must face the magistrate. Hopefully Hale isn't to angry with you when he wakes up."

Quest then goes to see the men who surrendered. "Who wants to earn a bit of favor for themselves and tell me what was going on here? Who did you work for and what was their plan for the mill?" He crosses his arm over his chest and affects the best stern expression he can muster. These men are all murderers, or complicit in a plan to commit murder, a firm hand will be needed.

Sara joins Thacogygax downstairs, at the Realstream's edge. This dock must be used for grain shipments to be dropped off, and flour to be shipped out. The gurgling of the water is a refreshing sound that partially drowns out the muttering and giggling of the broken man inside. But Thacogygax still hears new voices upstairs as the villagers arrive.

Ogbar and Aanbo are joined by a monk, who look them up and down, as another monk begins to efficiently pick up the bodies and carry them outside. Morgran sits on the stairs up to the second floor, and Quest steps around him to join Klak by the captives on the stairs. They are joined by another monk, entering from the office room, as Xana pauses in her searching of bodies to observe the conversation between the mystic and the thugs.

One of the thugs, a man called Stu, speaks up. You can't tell if he's terrified, or just has a stutter: "B-Black told us the m-mill would b-be a good b-base for us, and it was easy m-money, too. The w-w-w-w-river does all the work." He looks imploringly at them, cowed by the implacable expression on Klak's face. "We're b-boatmen! ...Originally... We just w-want honest work, b-but times are hard, and B-black told us that the m-mill would b-be b-better than m-more b-banditry..."