Chapter 1: The Knaves Visit the Spudfields

Elius narrows his eyes as Audree asks Theo about local rumors. The man did something with the dice before he rolled... did he switch them for a second pair?

That thought, and Audree's offer, are both left dangling as the door to the inn bursts open and a brown-haired, teenaged farmgirl scrambles into the room, out of breath.

"Reeve Morbin! You... you must come quickly! There's a -- a creature! In our cellar! Mum saw it! Eyes in the gloom!"

The man seated alone, the one with the broad-rimmed hat and the cruel lip, looks up at the girl, drinks deeply from his cup, then wipes his mouth with his sleeve. His eyes, hard and dark, fix the girl in place. There's a history between them, it's not difficult to see, and he smiles slightly before finally speaking.

"What now? Conrad and Eliza Spudfield want my help, want the help of the King's Reeve -- having not paid their levy? Did your father put you up to this, girl? Was he not man enough to come and look me in the eye to ask for my help?"

The girl -- more a young woman, really -- gulps air to calm her breathing. She wrings her hands as she responds. "I... he... it was mum what asked me to come fetch you. She was hoping--"

"Fetch me?!" the man blurted, interrupting the desperate teen. "Girl, I represent the King's authority here. I won't be fetched by the likes of you, not when your family can't even pay their taxes. Go back home, child. Go tell your father he needs to come see me himself if he expects my help, and he better have silver with him. Silver, not copper!"

As everyone watches the heated exchange, Theo quietly pockets the coin that Audree refused.

Elius stares at Theo and pick his coins. There is something fishy with this man, but one copper probably isn't worth the drama. There seems to be enough in the town.
He grabs his pack and follows Audree, mumbling "For lack of silver, I hope they'll have at least some copper"

The farmgirl flinches a little as the town's Reeve berates her in front of everyone, but Audree's quick and reassuring words brighten the teen's face. "You will?!" she says hopefully, and then when the other three gather round -- one of them towering over everyone else as he finishes chewing -- she grasps Watters's hands.

"There are four of you! We will be so grateful! My parents will reward you for this, I am sure!"

Turning, the slim brunette makes for the door, intending to lead the way back to the Spudfield farmstead.

"I will collect payment for your lodging and food tonight," Odgen calls out as the troupe exits his humble establishment, and Reeve Morbin narrows his dark and judging eyes as he too raises his voice.

"Tell your father I will visit the farm tonight to collect what's owed, after you've dealt with this terrible monster in your cellar, girl. Tell him!"

---

Outside the Bellowing Bear, a light drizzle is falling as the Spudfield girl pulls up the hood of her cloak and leads the quartet off to the north, away from the half-dozen old buildings and road that comprise the heart of Snodswick.

"Thank you again, all of you," she says again as she makes her way through the tall grass of an increasingly wet field. The lands surrounding the village on both sides of the road are largely old fields marked by low and partially robbed stone walls that look like they were built centuries before. "It's not far, not even half a league pa says, just past the old burying grounds."

"There seems to be a lot of tension and animosity in this last outpost of civilization before the wilderness. We'd better be careful" thinks Elius, paying conscious attention to his surroundings while eagerly waiting for the answer to Audree's question

The young Spudfield sets a good pace through the northern fields that border the village, leading her rather unusual companions to an overgrown path that takes them past the broken and rotten-looking remains of a collapsed building and a pile of lichen-covered fieldstones. They navigate a boggy patch of ground that results in a few wet boots, and finally cross a sparse line of stunted, wind-bent trees once used as a property line.

"That was Morbin, the King's taxman and Reeve," the girl says to the brightly dressed woman. "He has the run of Snodswick, dad says, and abuses his authority. My father doesn't like him, and didn't want to ask for his help."

As Clomm trudges, and as Elius Wax keeps an ever-wary eye out, the diminutive brunette in the homespun dress looks over her shoulder at Endrei when the big man rumbles out his own question.

"Of that I have no doubt, Mister... oh. My! I haven't even asked your names, nor told you mine." Turning so that she is walking backwards as she talks, it is plain to see that this girl is sure-footed and knows the terrain. Behind her, the shape of a farmhouse is emerging from the light mist, and some distance closer the ground is hummocked and unevenly mounded in places, looking quite unlike the rest of the potato fields surrounding the Spudfield farm.

"Call me Daece," the teen says, turning round again after names are exchanged. "And I am sure my parents will feed and house you if you can root the fiend my mother saw out of the cellar!"

"Hmm. Can you tell us a bit more about this creature? Did it suddenly appear from nowhere a few days ago?"
Then, pointing his bony hand toward the uneven ground, Elius adds in a rasp "Also, what kind of stuff do you grow in those fields?"

"Just last night," the girl answers, "mum went into the root cellar to fetch vegetables for our dinner. It's dark down there, so she brought a candle to light the lamp -- and she saw this figure, this hunched, shadowy thing. She can describe it better than I can, but it sounds frightful, like a thing crawled from a grave. She ran and slammed the cellar door behind her, and when she and dad heard growling from down there, they bolted it. My pa wanted to check on it this morning, to get some food for breakfast, but she wouldn't let him. They argued about what to do about it until she finally told me to get the Reeve... and here we are."

When the man asks about the fields, she shrugs. "Mostly root vegetables. Turnips, onions, carrots, beets -- and lots of potatoes."