Chapter 2: Local Heroes

Chulk the Goblin

The sheriff rubs his chin and thinks. "It does ring a bell. Not the name itself, but a vicious bugbear," he begins. "There's a ranger that sometimes visit. Goes by the name of Shalelu. She tells story of a fight with a bugbear. The one that got away."

He paces. "Problem is that she comes and goes like she wish. Always stays away a while before returning to sell pelts or trinkets for supplies."



Brodert Quink

Brodert is busy looking through books until he find the one he's been looking for. "Here it is," he says triumphant. He seems to have a spring in his steps that he lacked when you first entered.

He rushes over to the laboratory set up in the corner and starts adding chemicals together, sometimes taking a break to read in the book. It gives Li enough time to say farewell to his companions for now and agree to meet them later.

The rest head out the door and make their way to Madam Mvashte's house. What at first sight looks to be an ancient decrepit manor house. You knock on the door and a servant opens the door.

"The lady has been expecting you," the servant says, though you are certain it is a practiced sentence and something she tells all guests just to impress them.

She leads you through a hallway and into a study. In a upholstered sits one of the oldest people you have set your sights on. An ancient lady smiles at you, with a smile that lacks more than a couple of teeth. "Welcome. How may I help you?"

Madame Mvashti
The woman shakes her head. "No, that is bad magic. I do not deal with that kind of people. But give me the robe and I'll see what it tells."

She reaches out until someone hands her the robe. Upon touching it she makes a kind of hissing sound. "So much anger and hatred!"

She drops it, and pauses before bending over in her chair to pick it up again. She places it on a side table next to her and keeps her hands a couple of inches above the robe before continuing. "It's aura is covered in sadness, anger and hatred. I get something familiar, it's a local but not. Someone who has been gone for a time, recently returned."

"Sadly I do not have the magic to trace the aura to the owner."

Chulk the Goblin

"He wasn't allowed to go on assault," the goblin replies, cowering in his cell. "He'll be at home. You go to the log with moss that looks like Uncle Plog's birthmark, then you turn until you find the third beehive."

The goblin goes on with a with a wild description with nonsensical landmarks that only makes sense to him. Seems no one ever taught him a compass.

Brodert Quink

It takes some time, but eventually Li and Brodert have a finished solution. "This should tell us some more of the owner," he says.

He picks up the hair with a pincer and drops it into the solution. You see the clear liquid starts to color and quickly goes red and then green before landing on yellow. "Strange, it is both elf and human," Brodert says consulting the book. It takes him another second before he adds two and two together. "Right! Half-elf. Of course."

Madame Mvashti
"Sandpoint is no stranger to crime, or even murder," the old lady begins her story. "Oh, once or twice a year passion flares, a robbery goes bad or jelousy rears its ugly head, or one too many drinks are drunk. All can lead to someone's death. But five years ago the body count suddenly began to mount."

"The sheriff back then was Casp Avertin, a retired city watch officer from Magnimar. He was ill-prepared for the murderer known as Chopper. Over the course of one long winter month, every few days brought a new victim to light. Each was found in the same brutal state. Bodies bearing deep cutting wounds to the neck and torso, with both hands and feet severed and stacked nearby. Their eyes and tongue missing entirely, plucked crudely from the head."

"Over the course of that terrible month, Chopper claimed 25 victims. His uncanny knack at eluding traps and pursuit quickly wore on the town guard, taking particular toll on Sheriff Avertin, who increasingly took to drinking. Many believe that he even took to beating his wife and daughter. In any event, Sheriff Avertin himself became Chopper's last victim, slain when he finally caught the killer mutilating his latest victim in the side street that would come to be known as Chopper's Alley. Yet in the battle that followed, Avertin managed a telling blow against the murderer. When the town guard found the sheriff dead with another victim several minutes later, they were able to follow the bloody trail left by the killer."

"A trail that led straight to the stairs of Stoot's Rock, the prominent stone outcropping just north of the Old Light. Home to the friendly woodcarver Jervis Stoot."

"At first, the town guard refused to believe the implications, and feared that Chopper had come to claim poor Jervis Stoot as his 26th victim. Yet what the guards found in the modest home atop the isle, and in the larger complex of rooms that had been carved into the bedrock below, left no room for doubt. Jervis Stoot and Chopper were the same, and the eyes and tongues of all 25 victims were found in a horrific altar to a some vile bird demon. Stoot himself was found dead at the base of the altar, having plucked his own eyes and tongue loose for a final offering. The guards collapsed the entrance to the chambers, burned Stoot's house, tore down the stairs, and tried to forget. Stoot himself was burned on the beach in a pyre, his ashes then blessed and then scattered in an attempt to stave off an unholy return of his evil spirit from beyond the grave."

"Then only months later, the church burned down. It was a terrible time for the town. And just when we started to look forward, goblins decided to attack in force."

Brodert Quink

"I don't think there's much more to learn I'm afraid," Brodert Quink. "Alchemy is very useful, but it has its limits."

"Can't think of any half-elves in town, though to tell the truth I don't get out much."

Madame Mvashti

"Oh no. The wearer of this robe is very much alive, that I can tell," Madame Mvashti replies to Khel. "Though it has seen its share of death."

The oldy lady starts coughing up a storm, and quickly one of the servants runs up to her and offer her a glass of water.

The servant turns to you. "If that's all, the grandmother Mvashti need to rest."

Madame Mvashti waves the servant away. "Nonsene Atsi. Though I am afraid I cannot tell you much more of the robe or its owner."

Chulk the Goblin

Li takes a book from Brodert Quink and makes his way over to the garrison. He is quickly let in and reunited with his companions.

The sheriff shakes his head at Li's question. "He refer to them all as longshanks."

But he heads back to the goblin and ask if one of the longshanks is a half-elf. The goblin vigorously nods its head. "Archer with long hair has funny ears. I know because Bruthazmus collect elf ears and he want archer ear."