Not Today, Death!

It's yet another day in the grimy city of Eastport. It's a foggy late morning in early spring and the overcast sky portends rain soon. The smell of salt water, fish heads, kerosene, and human waste is constantly shifting on the stiff wind blowing in from the sea.

Wherever you are and whatever you happen to be doing, a halfling man approaches you. He is nondescript, brown hair with a brown goatee, loose shirt and wide trousers of undyed cloth, and a single bright green scarf as his only affectation. He gives a quick bob of his head for a salute and says simply, "Pardon the interruption but I have come to deliver a message. You have been invited to a meeting with Master Goverbandy at his residence in the Gold Crescent to a discuss a matter of some delicacy. He will reward your attention and all due haste."

Salvia, the halfling gives a simple shrug. "A man of wealth but solitary. Much is rumored but little proved. He pays decently for my services when needed so I have little bad to say. You can find his home in the Gold Crescent. It is the only one with jade-colored roofing tiles. I have been requested to recruit several others so please wait at the bottom of the road leading to the Gold Crescent and I shall lead you all together."

Winter, the halfling bows and says, "As you wish. I have been instructed to contact a few others first. Please wait at the bottom of the road leading to the Gold Crescent and I shall lead you all together."

Hermann, the halfling bows and says, "The sooner the better. I have requested the help of others who will be waiting at the bottom of the road leading to the Gold Crescent in one hour. If you are late you will have to find the way by yourself."

Upon everyone arriving, the messenger leads you up a steep road to a neighborhood called the Gold Crescent. It overlooks the harbor from a bluff, removed from the piratic riffraff that so infests this place. He stops in front of a three-story house near the center of the Gold Crescent. The house—built from brick and covered in ivy—features a four-gabled roof with a tower out front, roofed in jade-green tiles. Shutters cover the glass windows on the ground floor, while the windows of the upper floors remain un-shuttered. The house stands on a half-acre property surrounded by neglected, overgrown gardens and a stone wall beyond them, 4 yards high and crowned with spikes and broken glass. A wrought iron gate stands closed with an old ringing bell bolted to the stone next to it.

"There should be one more of you who will hopefully arrive soon..."

The messenger pulls the bell's cord and it begins to ring. The front door opens and a tall, thin man with a mop of greasy gray hair, he wears a black suit emerges. He pulls out a key from his breast pocket and unlocks the iron gate. It swings open with a creak.

"Thank you, Phillip. I will take it from here," the man says with an equally creaky voice. The messenger bows and departs back the way you all came. He turns to you all. "I am Mr. Goverbandy's butler, Gregory. Please come this way."

The house interior is old but cozy and well-kept. You don't get to see much of it as Gregory leads you to one of the first rooms off the foyer. It is a library. Curtains cover the room’s window. Shelves lining the walls from floor to ceiling A writing desk and chair occupy the room’s center, with leather couches and wingback chairs nearby. A hookah stands on the desk next to a box of matches and several charcoal medallions.

"Mr. Goverbandy is indisposed at the moment but will be with you shortly. I will bring refreshments. Please make yourselves comfortable." With a bow he exits the room, shutting the door behind him.

The shelves hold books on a variety of subjects, from the occult and demon-ology to histories, geographies and travelogues, philosophy, science, and pseudoscience. Some of the books lack proper titles and seem to be personal notebooks or unpublished books. Others are very rare and expensive.

Salvia reads through some journals of Goverbandy's, one seems to be a chronical of his apprenticeship to a young wizard in the city many years ago. She, and Hermann, notice that the largest collection (and easiest to access at eye level) are books on alchemy.

Gregory comes and leaves a tray of drinks and local snacks while you wait before he exits the library again.

A quarter hour after you have settled into the library, Kytemnesis Goverbandy barges into the room with a woman following at his heels. The woman is tall, thin, fit and with plain, rugged features. Goverbandy has the appearance of one who has never worked: Short, doughy, and pale, he dresses in embroidered purple robes and wears a fez on his head. His bright red hair has all but given up on his scalp, evidently more comfortable hanging from the sides of his head. Thick, curly hair covers his cheeks, but he keeps his moist lips free from beard and mustache. He settles into a leather chair and begins smoking his hookah before he begins talking.

In a high-pitched, trilling voice he begins. "I have been robbed! Despite the large security force I employ to protect myself and my valuables, someone has entered my abode and pilfered from me. While the theft has not unduly affected me financially, certain items were taken that could prove dangerous in the wrong hands. I would like to hire you to recover the three stolen items. I am offering five gold coins each up front. If you can return all of the items by the end of the week, I'll pay you an additional twenty gold coins as a bonus. As part of this employment, you must keep the fact of my robbery a secret, both as a matter of social pride and to delay any who would seek to purchase my items from the thief who stole them. If you accept, I can share further details with you." He sucks on his hookah as he waits for a reply.

"Yes, a reduced fee. You could try to sell them, of course, if the items had any market value. But then I'd have to hire assassins to find you which would be expensive for me and of course fatal for you, so let's not worry about such distasteful hypothetically, shall we?" He takes a drag on his hookah and puffs out a ring of smoke. With her wizard's sight, Salvia can see several objects glowing with magical auras on Goverbandy's person.

Goverbandy puffs out another wreath of smoke. "Of course. Once all of you have accepted, Mya, my head of security here," he gestures with the hookah pipe at the tall woman who entered with him, "Will fill you in on everything she's discovered so far and will show you around."

Goverbandy nods as he inhales a lungful of smoke. "I will take that as acceptance of the offer then," he says in his high voice as he exhales. He nods at the tall, rugged woman standing nearby.

The woman takes a step forward and stands at military parade rest. Clearly she has military training and currently surpressing anger and embarrassment at this lapse of security under her watch.

"As far as I can tell the burglary happend about eight hours ago in the dead of night. This is what I've uncovered so far.

"I found two unconscious guards in the gardens out
front. They’ve been revived but remain groggy; neither
remembers what happened. Something cut a hole in the garden wall behind the house big enough for a person to fit through. They entered the house through the second story by cutting a hole in the window glass and unlocking it. I found the muddy footprints of a single individual leading from the window to the top step of the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs is a bookcase concealing a hidden entrance to the vault below which I found open. Only Goverbandy, Gregory, and myself know about this bookcase. The metal door to the vault was also opened and the lock had been almost entirely rusted away."

"That is satisfactory, Mya," Goverbandy says. "As for what was stolen, well only I know the entire contents. Inside my vault were a lockbox containing five hundred gold pieces, a stack of personal papers and letrers, a knife, an idol, and a book. It is these latter three that are dangerous and must be returned."

"A small scale, I should hope," he says with a smile, hookah smoke escaping from the corners of his mouth. "The idol was given to me by an old archeologist for safe keeping a few years back. He claimed the idol spoke to him and he was fearful of it, so I locked it up in my vault. I am not sure if my safekeeping was supposed to be permanent or not, but after my friend met an unfortunate and grisly demise I didn't have any chance to ask him.

"The knife was purchased on my travels when I passed through Aegon. It has an 18-inch straight, double-edged blade with a black handle capped with an iron spike. The blade’s metal looks like iron but is not. It is strangely dull against living things but exceptionally sharp towards objects.

The book is called the Golden Grimoire and was reportedly penned by an alchemist named Phineas Macadoo, sometimes known as the Forever Man. It’s believed he was the most recent alchemist to discover the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone. The book has a gold cover, rumored to have been transmuted from lead. I tracked down the book and bought it from a seller in Vereen. I tried to read the book but it was either written in some kind of cypher or was just the scribblings of a mad man."

"None whatsoever. I haven't so much as looked at it since I locked it up. I remember it making my skin crawl though. It was a squat, fat thing with bat wings and some kind of insect head."

Salvia remembers a description of a minor deity of pestilence and failed crops called Grizzibulg.

When Hermann asks, Goverbandy ponders for a moment and then snaps his fingers. " Now that you mention it, someone camr to ask about purchasing the Golden Grimoire a week or so ago. An agent for an interested party he said. What was his name...? Ah, Seth Tyka or something like that. Of course I refused to even consider the offer and turned him away at the door."

The tall grizzled woman says, "There's no reason to think the person who did this was aware of all the items, or even any of them. Master Goverbandy is a wealthy citizen and would make an ideal target for that alone. Or perhaps the thief was after just one of the items and swiped them all because why not? Surely anything kept in a safe was worth stealing. But whoever did this was a professional and used techniques beyond a simple cat burglar."

Between Mya and the two guards, Hermann gets the following information:

The two guards, Blenken and Oroyuke, have worked for Goverbandy for three years and five years, respectively, and demonstrated competence and loyalty the entire time. Both men were found unconscious in the garden and remain lethargic and somewhat confused. Both also have a light coating of pink-grey dust on their uniforms. Mya adds that the same dust was found caked around their eyes and noses when she found them. Blenken remembers nothing about the night, but Oroyuke recalls seeing a shadow move by one of the trees. He thinks he called out to the shadow and moved up to engage, but everything went dark after that.

Alas the tree was just near the wall and likely used for cover to avoid detection by the guards until the intruder sprung their attack. All that's found are the same footprints in the mud nearby.

45 minutes have now elapsed.

1.5 HOURS HAVE ELAPSED

THE GUILDED LILY
An infamous den of iniquity, the Gilded Lily is operated out of the old Casten House, a mansion that covers an entire city block. Cards, dicing, roulette, and more happen on the main floor, which also boasts four bars. One wing of the house hosts dancing, vaudeville acts, and the
like, while the other houses spectacle sports such as bear baiting, pit fighting, and brawling. Day or night, the Gilded Lily does a brisk business. The Lily attracts the usual lowlifes found in this city: pirates, sailors of dodgy disposition, thieves, killers, and worse. Along with them, one finds merchant dandies eager to gamble the coins in their bulging purses. About a hundred people work at the Lily, thirty of whom are guards.

Approaching the sprawling mansion of ill-repute, a pair of human guards approach you before you can reach the front double-doors. The taller one speaks. "Well met. The owner was expecting you and has extended an invitation to meet with him. If you accept we will escort you to him."

THE STAR AND CRESCENT
It takes some searching to locate the Star and Crescent. You find the place at the end of a narrow alley formed by two tenements, the tops of which lean against each other. The alley reeks; scraps of paper, bones, parrot guano, and other detritus cover the muddy track. The Star and Crescent has a single door on which someone has painted a horizontal crescent with a five-pointed star above it. There is a sign that hangs from the door reading: OPEN AFTER SUNSET. It is currently half past noon.

THE GUILDED LILY
You are escorted up a flight of stairs and into a windowed office overlooking the main gambling hall. A clearly inhuman male sits in a leather chair inside his office. He has two heads, each atop a different long, serpentine neck. Small blue flames burn over his heads. He has long, black talons at the end of his fingers. He wears a fine, tailored suit in charcoal gray. When he speaks, he does so from both mouths, one speaking one word, the other speaking the next.

"Welcome to the Guilded Lily. Please have a seat."

He points with a taloned hand to two tan leather chairs facing him.

"What have you come to ask me about the robbery?"

THE STAR AND CRESCENT
There is silence for a handful of minutes before the door slowly opens up. On the other side is a youthful woman with long brown hair and brown eyes dressed in a nightgown with a robe thrown over it. She also looks very unhappy.

"If someone is not dead or dying I will curse both of you before you can say 'no, wait, please, don't'!"

THE GUILDED LILY
The two-headed demon laughs.

"Oh I know every dark deed that goes on here. And I know who you are looking for. But that information isn't free. Bring me something rare, something magical, and I will tell you what you want."


THE STAR AND CRESCENT
The woman is quiet for a moment, eyes squinted at you. "So in other words, not an emergency. My shop opens after sunset. Be gone!" The woman slams the door in your faces.

THE GUILDED LILY
The demon shakes both heads.

"Nothing specific. If you feel the task is too onerous I will accept one of your souls instead."

Both mouths grin.


THE STAR AND CRESCENT
Hermann reaches through the door in a magically created portal and grabs the woman's robes, pulling her and smashing her face against the inside of the door. You hear her muffled voice say, "That...was a mistake." The woman grabs onto Hermann's forearm with both of her hands and sends a magical blast through it. Fire and eldritch energy ripple through Hermann's arm, scorching the clothing and some skin.

THE STAR AND CRESCENT
Through the door the woman says, "Then come alone, miss. That man is not welcome in my shop." There's a slight pause, as if she's listening to your conversation. After you finish speaking the woman says, "If you're in that much of a hurry, try Crenus Crumble. I hear he's new in town so I don't know much about him other than that he dabbles in matters arcane and alchemical. If he doesn't have any answers I'll see you tonight." You hear her footsteps retreating.

THE GUILDED LILY

The demon takes a puff of a nearby hookah pipe with the mouth of one head and somehow blows it out the mouth of his other head.

"No doubt. I look forward to seeing you soon." He nods to the guards that escorted you to their boss and now escort you back to the entrance.

Outside, just a few buildings down the street, you see an agitated shopkeeper talking to a pair of guards, gesturing to a neatly cut whole in his shop's wall in a crude circle with the diameter of a human hand.


THE QUIZZICAL QUILL
The bookshop is indeed open and almost entirely empty at this time of day. The shop is meticulously organized and cleaned. Anyone visiting for the first time is surprised, and perhaps a bit disappointed, not to walk into a dusty shop with piles of books on floor, tables, and chairs, no waterfall of scrolls spilling from scroll shelves. It was clean, orderly, and somewhat pleasant smelling. A woman behind a large desk is, maybe blasphemously, not reading at all, but instead knitting something with blue and white yarn. She looks up as you enter. "May I help you? Oh, Miss Evensong, welcome back."

OUTSIDE THE GUILDED LILY

Hanging around nearby you hear the man saying, "...and I'm sure it was a kid. Only chest high, dressed in mostly rags, dirty. Probably a street urchin. But she had this strange-looking knife like I've never seen before. Cut a hole right through my wall like it was made of goat cream!"


THE QUIZZICAL QUILL

Razitha smiles at the ever-bubbly Salvia. "A pleasure to meet you, Sir Drakner," she gives a slight bow from her sitting position. Turning back to Salvia, "I'm working on a shawl which I hope to finish before autumn is in full swing." She holds up about a fifth of a finished shawl but you can already see designs such as books and quills patterned into it.

Listening to Salvia's problems, Razitha nods in sympathy. "I'm afraid I haven't heard about any robberies recently. Not surprising, my store isn't exactly a hub for gossip. I do know a bit about this Crenus Crumble. He's been in town just a few weeks. He even stopped by here looking for books on alchemy and history. He was...well, I don't want to be rude, but disturbing in appearance. He seemed to be suffering from a dozen afflictions all at once! No doubt some related to his experiments, I shouldn't doubt. He hasn't been back since he couldn't find whatever he was looking for here. I heard he bought a house in the Golden Crescent, but that's all I know about him. Seems to be a bit of a recluse."

OUTSIDE THE GUILDED LILY

The guards look at you, one with eyebrows raised. "Did you see what happened here? If you're looking to help, any help identifying the guilty party would be of great help." The other guard elbows his partner and whispers, "You want to say 'help' a few more times? I don't think you quite used up your monthly supply yet."


THE QUIZZICAL QUILL

Razitha shudders at the thought of bodily fluids staining her precious books. "No, thankfully." She then points to her small section on alchemy. "Alchemy. Nothing vague, not for him, oh no, we was searching for the fabled Philosopher's Stone. Not that I'm surprised, many people look for that, just usually not at a small bookstore in a small town. He mentioned something about tracking down a book that was rumored to be in this town and was looking for it. I'm not surprised he was in much of a hurry considering the state of him. He seemed to be on the far side of healthy."

IN THE CITY

The pair didn't have to keep their eyes open for long. Several streets from where you encountered the guards and the shopkeep, you notice a gate in a back alley resting crookedly against a high stone wall behind a jeweler's shop. The gate has been sliced clean off its hinges. Peering through the opening in the wall, the back door of the shop is slightly ajar, the handle and lock cut out in a clean square.

CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

You find directions easily enough with your description of Crenus Crumble. The man lives in a two-story townhouse in a row of similar buildings. A small fenced-in yard surrounds the place, though the landscaping has all died and the grounds have become lumpy with groundhog tunnels. The fence has a small front gate with a patina-coated copper bell for visitors to ring to announce their presence.

CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

The bell rings with a nerve-jarring clang that seems to fade away almost as soon as it's rung. The front door of the house opens after a few moments and a burly man nearly two meters tall and half as wide makes his way to the gate. He is a human who looks like he has muscles for brains, with a few visible scars and a shaved head. Yet he wears a well-cut suit of moderate quality. He stops before you and rumbles, "Can I help you?"

The brute of a man rumbles in response, "Mr. Crumble is a busy man and has requested not to be disturbed. Perhaps if you can tell me the nature of your business it may persuade him."

IN THE CITY

Winter finds a set of small footprints that belong to a child leading into the shop. No return tracks are evident.


CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

The man is silent for a moment. "Who has been robbed? The only person who had information regarding the Philosopher's Stone is Mr. Goverbandy."

IN THE CITY

Winter silently sneaks into the building. The interior is dark, the shutters are all down and it appears the shop is closed for business this day. The shop is clearly a jewelers, with walls of wooden storage shelves, each for a different precious metal or stone. A girl somewhere between ten and fifteen years old is picking through small wooden chests, occasionally pilfering expensive rings, necklaces, earrings, and diadems. Not many it appears, not enough to be easily noticed by the owner. Winter doesn't have much time to study the scene before Kade enters and knocks over the coat rack just inside the back door. The noise is almost deafening in the silence of the closed shop. The young girl immediately stiffens in surprise, then whips out a dagger, running for the front of the shop.


CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

The large man cocks his head. "Well...in his possession, of course. Wait one moment, I will inform Mr. Crumble about your reason for coming." The man walks back to the house and is absent for a few short minutes before returning. He opens the gate and waves you inside before closing it behind you.

"Mr. Crumble is making time for you. Keep in mind he is very busy and doesn't enjoy his time being wasted. Make your story short and to the point. No dancing around with words."

You enter and the servant takes you to a parlor just off the front entrance way. The house is sparse and neglected but well-appointed with select furnishings. Crenus Crumble enters a few moments later. He is a sight to behold. The man has ugly boils all over his face and scalp. Scaly patches of dead skin cover his hands and arms. His eyes have yellowish sclera, and his lips bleed. He wears expensive clothing, however, with rings on his fingers and a gold chain around his neck. He gives a hacking cough as he shuffles to a seat near a window and waves at you to sit.

"Now then," he croaks, "What is it you have come to tell me?"

THE JEWELER'S SHOP

The girl is faster than Kade but can't match the faun's deer-like legs in speed or power. Winter skids to a halt, hooves scraping the wooden floor. The girl pulls out a knife. It has an 18-inch straight, double-edged blade with a black handle capped with an iron spike. It wavers in her grasp, clearly heavy for such a skinny child. She doesn't say anything, but her wild eyes dart around in panic. She edges sideways towards a wall while keeping the knife in front of her.

CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

The man gives a throaty and phlegm-rattling chuckle. "On the contrary, I met with you because I think you know something. Mors, Crumble nods towards his burly manservant, "Has only said you mentioned Mr. Goverbandy and the Philosopher's Stone. If what you say is true and Goverbandy has been robbed, then this is tragic news indeed. I'm afraid I know nothing of the robbery. I did seek out Goverbandy in the past and offered to purchase a very important book from him, but he declined. I have no interest in whatever other trinkets Goverbandy possessed. If I knew where the stolen items were you had better believe I'd be trying to acquire that book instead of meeting with you. But since you mentioned compensation, maybe it is I who should offer. If you find Goverbandy's stolen items, I will pay you handsomely for the book. You may return any other stolen items to the man, I only desire the book. What do you say?"

CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

"I have read about such things. Far beyond my capabilities, unfortunately, but what I lack in skill I make up for in knowledge. The oil is known as 'steel bane', an oil that exponentially speeds up the oxidation of certain metals causing them to rust in a matter of moments. The powder is most likely 'chorian dust', an anesthetic used to put its victims to sleep and numbs all feeling until it wears off. Its made from an exotic species of coral and thus quite expensive. Not something an average thief would use, I wouldn't think. If it's a thief you are looking for, I would suggest Pyta Ypta who runs the Gilded Lily. That fiend knows everything about black deeds in this city I've heard."

THE JEWELER'S SHOP

Kade isn't sure if it was mentioning fighting men on a battlefield, the threat that he might have to hurt her, or insulting how she was holding the knife, but what he does know is that one or all of them were the wrong approach to take with a scared girl who was likely homeless and without family. The young girl spins around and quickly cuts through a section of solid wall as if it were paper. The whole is just big enough for her to squeeze through. In a matter of seconds she has escaped outside.

CRENUS CRUMBLE'S HOUSE

"I wish you luck in your search then," the man says phlegmily. "Please escort these nice people out, Mors." Crumble spins, well revolves like a planet, and makes his way out of the parlor first. You can hear the stairs creak under his weight as he ascends to the second floor. Mors says, "This way then," and directs you out of the house and back through the main gate.

2 hours have now elapsed.

IN THE CITY
Salvia, Hermann, and Arne are walking through the town after their meeting with Crenus Crumble when they see a young girl sprinting across the road, knife in hand. She approaches a small gate at a nearby house, swings the knife, and cuts right through the bars. The gate collapses in half and the girl leaps over the wreckage and into the small yard beyond, out of sight.

Kids are not known for their critical thinking, wisdom, or love of being told what to do, so it is not so surprising that the street urchin girl does not listen and instead flails around, trying to get out of Hermann's grip. She even lashes out with her magic knife. But for all the good it did she might as well have attacked the inquisitor with a spoon. The knife hits home with a solid blow at Hermann's sternum, but the blade is so dull it doesn't do more than leave an indent in the fabric. The girl seems just as surprised at the lack of effect her weapon has and squawks a "Wha-?" before resuming her thrashing. "Let go! I didn't do anything to you!"

Seeing herself surrounded and outnumbered five to one, the girl slumps. "I didn't do anything," she mutters petulantly. The clinking of small metal objects somewhere in her ragged clothes says otherwise.

The girl looks at the money suspiciously. Who would give such money to a street pickpocket like her? You can read the thought on her face. But surrounded as she is she doesn't have much choice and eventually sags.

"It lets me cut through hard things like they were soft, but not soft things things very well. I stole it from an old, dirty, ugly man. He was too busy talking to a small statue to pay much attention, so I stole the knife. It's his fault for not paying attention!"

The girl seems uncomfortable for a moment. "I can, but it was a few hours ago. He might not still be there. But I will take you if that's what you want. Do I still get the money if he's not there?" With either answer, the girl has no choice and leads the party onwards. She takes you down cramped alleys and dirty streets, heading to the less affluent part of town. After about twenty minutes the girl takes you to an alley that looks like any other and stops. "He was here. He had some kind of stone statue he was talking to. I asked for some change and he didn't answer, so that's when I took the knife. I don't think he noticed so-"

A sudden sharp scream rings out. It sounds as if it came from no more than half a dozen streets away, maybe less. The scream is filled with raw fear and pain.

2.5 hours have now elapsed.

The girl says, "Nobody ever wants to find me for a good reason. I don't want to be found." Her expression turns indignant when Kade pockets the coin that was nearly hers. When Hermann asks for the dagger, she clings tighter, then points her chin at Kade, clearly indicating she wants the coin in exchange for the dagger.

Two streets away, a bloodied woman comes stumbling out of another alley. Her dress is cut in several places and bloodstains are spreading through the fabric. Her eyes are wild, hair is tousled. She has defensive cuts on her hands as well. She spies Silvia and limps towards her. "Help! Please!" Behind her in the shadows of the alley you can see the outline of a man wielding a knife. He pauses, heaving with labored breathing.

With your keen vision and wizard's sight, you can see the man matches the description the urchin girl gave. The man is also holding a statue that radiates a demonic aura. Unfortunately when your tentacles seize the man and begin squeezing him, he drops the statue. It smashes upon the ground. There's a flash of anti-light, like negative lightning that turns the world pitch black for a heartbeat before disappearing. When you can see again, there is a large barbed demon nearly twelve feet tall looming next to your tentacles. A shadowy aura surrounds the demon, seeming to absorb the light around it. It shrieks directly at you, its purple glowing eyes staring right at you through your invisibility. Yet it takes time to claw at two of your tentacles, first. With ease, it's sharp claws tear through the magical tentacles, splattering magical residue onto the cobbled streets.

The girl's eyes go wide at the coins. She hands over the dagger and quickly scoops up the coins. In the flash of a magician's trick, the coins disappear somewhere inside her rags and she's off down the street, bare feet slapping against the stone street.

Winter aims true but the demon bats her arrow out of the air with a lazy swipe.

Kade doesn't need words to bring the pain. The greatsword cleaves through the demon's barbed flesh leaving a ragged gash of orange flesh gushing blue blood. The beast lets out a piercing cry that sounds like grinding nails.

Hermann lunges with a follow-up attack but the demon staggers back from Kade's blow and Hermann finds himself just a hair's breadth short of piercing the demon's hide.

Total damage: 25

Outnumbered, the group rains death and destruction on the demon. Blue blood splatters and spurts everywhere. It isn't long before the demon succumbs to its wounds and disappears into a cloud of sulfurous smoke. The street is quiet. Several small groups of people peek cautiously from adjoining roads. The man you were after originally lies unconscious at the mouth of the alley.

Salvia sees just he faint tinge of magic aura around the broken statue pieces but it starts fading after the demon's expulsion from the material plane. No other auras are visible.

The attacked woman who fled is among the crowd of onlookers, being supported by a young man. "Is he...dead?"

"I-I don't know," the woman starts with a shaking voice. "I was just on my way to the bakery when that man came out of the alley. It looked like he was, I don't know, talking to the statue or maybe himself. He looked a little crazy so I must've stopped and stared in shock. Then he saw me and just flew at me! I mean, not fly like a bird of course, but it happened so fast. He was on me, hurting me, so I just pushed him as hard as I could and ran!"

The woman has several wounds that will need medical care but are not immediately life threatening.

The man has nothing on him. He's wearing a cheap set of common clothes that are now dirty and bloodstained as well as threadbare. The man remains consciousness when he is lifted up by Arne.

"What's going on? Why are you hurting me?"

The tension leaves the woman's face as her pain eases. "Thank you, miss! I thought I was not going to see another day!" Now that she is out of immediate danger, the adrenaline that had been sustaining her drains and the woman sinks to the ground sobbing at what she's been through today.

The man in custody stammers, "I f-found it! T-there was a dead b-body in a small house! The statue t-talked to me. I was curious and picked it up. That's the last thing I remember!"

"Uh, y-yeah, s-sure. Of c-course! Th-this way." The unkempt and wild-eyed man leads you down narrower and dirtier streets into a worse section of town. Eventually he stops in front of one that is larger but in no less better condition than its neighbors. The obvious flophouse was once a fine manor, now fallen on hard times. Rotting, mildew-stained plaster has crumbled away to show cracked bricks. The damp roof
sags, and several windows have been boarded up. An old woman sits on a metal chair out front, drinking something foul from a tin cup and chewing on a cheroot.

"H-he was in a room h-here," he says in a low voice, trying not to be overheard by the woman.

Overheard or not, the woman stares at you with suspicion and spits a gob of something onto the warped wooden porch. "Wot're youse all starin' at den?" she challenges.

The lady bars the way with a walking cane. "This here be ma property. That makes it ma business. If ya don' be respectin' edlers, ya best be respectin' property rights! Now then, what be ya business?" The woman spits out another disgusting wad of something slimy onto the porch between Salvia and Arne's feet.

The woman is quiet for a moment. "Dead body, says you. I ain't seen no dead body. And how'd you'se know about it anyway? Mighty large nose ya have, pokin' around in people's bizness. How'se about I go take a peek with the little bossy missy? If ya speak true, we can talk more about how much fer disposal and suchnot."

The unkempt man says, "The r-room in the b-back on the f-first f-floor, uh, l-left side."

The elderly woman on the porch looks at him suspiciously and then spits a final gob on the unknown substance before standing up with an annoyed sigh. "Alright, let's git." She unlocks the front door with a large iron key on an equally large iron key ring and leads the way inside. The interior is dark from shuttered windows and the air is stale. The house was large and once nice but fallen into disrepair. The front entrance leads into a hallway with a kitchen at the far end, and six doors--three on each side--which seem to be the rented rooms. The woman stomps with her cane to the last door on the left and unlocks it. The door creaks open.

The boarded up window in this room has been broken inward, pieces of it all over the floor. Something destroyed the furnishings—the remains of a bed, a cheap dresser, and broken gear lie scattered throughout, much of it bloodstained. The body of a man lies among the smashed bed. He seems oddly crushed, many of his limbs twisted in odd ways, the bones crushed. Splotches of dried mud cover the body and parts of the room.

The crotchety woman surveys the room. "Well he wasn't gettin' his deposit back anyway. Now about tha' payment..."

Salvia sees a faint glow coming from somewhere under the floor near the destroyed bed. No other magic is present. The most striking mundane clues are the strange patches and splotches of mud everywhere, the amount of destruction for such a small room, and the injuries to the body. It seems like something large and with superhuman strength is behind this.

The old woman returns back to the porch and nods at the others. "Yeah, well, the sassy lass was right. Git on in and take a peek, quick-like. And I'm gonna need that payment promised. The room is hellfire wrecked!"

The woman harrumphs but accepts the coin.

Inside Arne pulls up a loose floorboard that reveals a cavity that contains a leather pouch of various gemstones, a short sword that glows with magic to Salvia's eyes, two vials of the same pink-grey dust found on the guards at Groverbandy's estate, a potion, and a scrap of paper with the name Crenus Crumble written in charcoal.

Judging from the wounds of the body and destruction of the room, it seems unlikely to have been caused by a human. If this was a targeted killing, it would be foolish indeed to be so obvious about it. Salvia finds no footprints outside of the corpse's (which do match the footprints found in Groverbandy's estate). The amount of mud is also much more than what would be tracked in on a single, or even double, pair of feet.

You make your way back to Crumble's abode and the familiar fence, gate, and bell. You ring the bell and the large manservant returns to greet you. "You have returned so soon. I regret to inform you that Master Crumble is in the middle of a delicate experiment and is unavailable for the moment. If you are free this evening and the master has finished, I can send you dinner invitations?"

Hermann finds the knife works as well as rumored. Cutting through the house exterior was about as difficult as cutting through clay. It took only about a minute to cut an entrance big enough to wiggle through. The light from outside streamed through the hole, illuminating the otherwise darkened room. They were in an unused bedroom in the rear of the house from the look of it. An old bed covered in dust and easily a few decades old squatted in the center of the room. Equally dusty furniture including a padded chair, a wardrobe closet, and a desk were the only other items. A closed door is opposite you.

Salvia can hear someone shuffling around in the kitchen, two rooms down the hallway from where the party waits in the spare bedroom. The tinkle of silverware, the clink of porcelain, the tread of heavy footsteps. There is also another sound, much fainter from an indeterminate direction, of squelching and plopping.

Salvia's hearing and Hermann's inquisitor senses point to the end of the hall opposite the kitchen. The sound/sense is coming from behind a closed wooden door. There are a few splashes of mud on the floor and door, some dried and some fresh.

Winter stares at the mud tracks but can't determine what made them. They are not muddy footprints, not footprints in mud, but just splotches of mud that have the same pattern that would be made by something walking. Winter's confusion only lasted until Hermann opens the door.

In the small, dim room beyond lurks a seven-foot tall, four-foot wide lump of mud in the rough shape of a man. It raises two tree-trunk thick arms and lumbers at you!