Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Royal Mile Inn

((Edit: I said binoculars, but meant more like a nautical viewing glass. That's why he said 'viewing glass'. It was meant more like what was on ships as early as 1614. That's not far off at all, especially not for creatures more advanced at working with heat. Bending glass.))

Rin tucked low and prepared for the shot. He braced himself to chase after the intruder if the shot missed. Thinking he should get a head start, he started walking. He looked back to make sure he was out of Pint's firing arc. He would wait to hand Pint his axe if he decided to run.

(Oof! Dat damage!)

Pint figured that running away counted as a funny movement, if this guy was running that meant he was hiding something and that earned him a shot in Pint's eyes.

Lining up the arrow, Pint aimed at the figure and let loose, putting an arrow right on the back of the fleeing figure.

This Lieutenant Peter was continuing to strike her as either a moron or the culprit. It was difficult to tell which. But he'd just been told about someone or something watching the Inn from the woods and hardly seemed to bat an eye about it.

"...no-one upstairs on the watch tower. That was his last order, an unusual order - not that I thought anything of it at the time."

She was tempted to be snippy and tell the Lieutenant that he'd better get someone up there quick. But he might not take kindly to orders from a civilian woman. And, if he really was the culprit, he was incredibly dangerous as he'd just assumed authority in the wake of the murder. She didn't wish to have him try to pin it on her the second the dwarf theory fell apart.

Her mind went involuntarily back to the fortune. She hadn't had any plans to go to the court, but if she were under arrest, then she'd hardly have a choice in the matter. Is that how she'd meet Fitzroy? In shackles? After what Martha told her, that felt particularly ominous. Now she wished she hadn't had the fortune told at all, knowing it was clouding her thinking and her actions.

"Do you think it might ... might be part of some larger attack?" she suggested in the least confrontational tone she could manage. "Maybe someone should check the watch tower..." She'd do it herself, except that trying to slip quietly away from the scene of a murder was bound to look suspicious.

"Kertwang" the arrow sings as it flies from Pint's bow, and strikes the fleeing figure straight in the back. The force of the shot propels him forwards, and he falls over, and doesn't get up.

The forest is coniferous, with trees forming eerie shadows against the moonlit sky. As their eyes adjust further, the dwarves can see many small warm shapes, the animals that live there. Here a bat flying between the trees, there a small burrowing animal in amongst the roots. Rin can see Pint, a squat red shape, deep crimson from the excitement. Then behind him is the diffuse, dull red glow of the Inn.

Meanwhile the inhabitants of the Inn are coming to terms with what has happened.

"Do you think it might ... might be part of some larger attack?" suggests Brenna in the least confrontational tone she could manage. "Maybe someone should check the watch tower..."

"I'm pretty sure the watchtower was empty" says Martha, "you can hear it from the upstairs rooms, and there didn't seem to be anyone up there. The guard went down when Captain Baring called him."

"There should be someone up there all the time" says Bald Mick, "particularly at a time like this. That's the procedure."
Lieutenant Peter looks flustered, unsure for a moment what to do. "I'll post a guard" he says. A soldier goes upstairs, you can hear his heavy tread on the wooden stairs.

"I suppose no-one wants to eat dinner now" says Rosalind, and begins to clear off the plates.
"No, don't" says Macey, "we need to work out exactly what happened. Don't throw away any food."

With the sheer force of Pint's arrow, it was a good thing the shot hit the figure in the back. At that velocity, the arrow would have likely torn the person's head off. They might not have been able to identify them one way or another. There was a part of Rin's mind that wondered if they hadn't made a mistake. There seemed to be little recourse after the verbal warning.

"Flip sakes, lad", Rin said in a tone which sounded heavily impressed. "Knocked 'im right, OOT!" He spread his arm to lean Snickersnack towards Pint when he was ready to take it. This caused Rin to turn away from the intruder and back towards the inn, since the axe was in his right hand.

It gave the ruddy dwarf time to ponder the situation inside the inn. Perhaps they'd just found the person responsible. Even if the incidents were unrelated, the slain intruder could have been an accomplice or be up to mischief of their own accord.

"'hink I'll have a look" Rin said before starting off. Once the axe was handed off, Rin began moving towards the body. He kept to a steady pace, keeping his noise down so he could monitor his surroundings better.

Shouldn't have run.

Pint's expression was that of horrified excitement. It was difficult for the dwarf to contain his bloodlust, and the rush of adrenaline he got from nailing the figure on the back with an arrow was intense! Yet, at the same time, Pint wasn't without his conscience and a small voice on the back of his head wondered if he had just shot some innocent bystander... funny how that particular voice sounded a lot like a certain cleric.

"Aye, that bloke's done fer alright." Pint agreed to Rin as he lowered his bow. Even he was impressed with the strength of his shot, it looked like he had gotten the figure right on the vertebrate by the way it bent backwards before flying forward.

"Keep it down though, we donna know if there's more buggers 'round." He gestured to Rin to keep his voice down as he grasped the offered Snickersnack.

Trading his bow for his Urgrosh, Pint advanced cautiously behind Rin. "Go and check 'im. I'll cover ye, brother."

"I meant to keep watch for an attack..." Brenna said, unsure how Martha might have construed her statement to mean that something was hiding up there. Luckily, the Lieutenant sent someone up anyway.



Normally, (not that a poisoning at dinner was normal...) she might have simply sat down and drawn as little attention to herself as possible. But with Pint being at the top of Peter's list of suspects, she felt she needed to do what she could to get to the real truth of the matter.

"Macey's right..." she added. "We should determine if the other food is poisoned as well." Not that anyone was going to be volunteering to try it, of course... But then they'd know if the target was the Captain or if he was simply unfortunate enough to have been the first one to dive into his meal.

"Let's get some of those rats from the barn to be the taste testers..."

Rin moves cautiously to the lying figure, followed at a slight distance by Pint. It is dressed in light leather armour, which is very tatty and poorly cured. It has been transfixed by arrow, and killed almost instantly. Rin gingerly turns it over, and sees the characteristic pig's snout. A medallion round the creature's neck confirms his suspicions, it shows the full moon between two horns, the symbol of the evil moon-worshipping religion. He seems to be armed with nothing but a small knife,, and there is no backpack or supplies of any sort, save a water bottle attached to his belt.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Peter has another body to deal with in the Inn. "Take Captain Baring upstairs" he says, "and put him in his own bed. We'll deal with him properly in the morning."
Caitlin volunteers to help Brenna with the rats.
"There's traps in the kitchen" says Betty, "might be a few rats in them already. If you take them out to the stables you'll likely get a lot of rats quickly. I'll get you some cheese to use as bait."
She goes into the kitchen and emerges with a few rat traps. They are of the "swing door" variety, basically a rat enters the trap, via a door which swings forwards to admit it, but won't swing backwards to allow its escape.

"Who do you think it could be?" says Caitlin to Brenna as they pass through the compound to the stables, "and why Captain Baring, of all people?"
"I've 'eard" says Samuel the stable hand, "and I'm shocked, shocked. There was many of the soldiers didn't like Captain Baring very much, he was a bit over strict as a commander. And he resented Henry Fitzroy, who was his commander. Look at 'is 'oss. I suppose it will go to Lieutenant Peter now, but fit for next to nothing. That's Fitzroy's meanness."
"I've heard there's queer folk prowling about in all. " He takes a hammer from the tiny blacksmith's forge, "Samuel has got this to protect you, young ladies. I'm not just a stable hand, you know."

The dwarf looks over the contents of the man's body, glinting hard to see the details under his nocturnal vision's capacity. Pigmen were known to cause trouble from here to the hills. The group also carried notoriety on it's own. Rin still couldn't help but wonder, as the quizzical look across his pointy face showcased.

"Cannae help but 'hink if he weren't just out ta worship the moon or some sheight." He leaned forward to close the man's eyes with his bulky, dwarven fingertips. "Still. Things 'a went down inside. This fella might 'a been an accomplice or some such." His accent tossed the last word through a more guttural octave.

Rin planned to leave the body and inform the officers back at the inn. He was curious on Pint's view of the find.

Pint a disgusted face at the pig man and was suddenly very glad he shot it.

"Nay, I donna think he was out for a night stroll." He told Rin.

The dwarven slayer was never one to leave tracks of his handywork though, and while he felt that returning to the inn was the right call, he didn't want to leave the corpse out here. Besides, they needed to check out what the screaming was all about.

"Help me carry him, mate. You grab his wrists and I'll grab his ankles." Said Pint and bent down to pick up the pig man by the feet.

Your father's on the short list with those spices of his...

Brenna thought, though did not say that out loud to Caitlin.

"Hard to say," she said as she carried an empty cage in each hand out toward the rat infested stables. "But hopefully this will at least tell us if the Captain was the only target. Ugh... makes me glad I was a little late for dinner. Did you eat any of it before... you know... ?"

As they were met by Samuel and he brought up Henry Fitzroy, she added him to the list of suspects. Samuel seemed upfront and honest enough to ask his opinion on the matter. "Did Fitzroy have anything against Captain Baring? Enough to wish him dead, you think?"

Pint and Rin take the dead creature by the wrists and ankles, and carry him to the gate of the Inn. It's impossible to do this with stealth, and they make quite a bit of noise brushing past branches and cracking twigs underfoot. Pint rings the bell, and after a few minutes bald Mick answers, with the two dogs, Lupus and Rex. Mistress Weather's cat reappears, and darts in as soon as the gate is opened. The dogs bark like crazy, maybe it's the cat, maybe it's the dead figure, but they are yapping away as though possessed.

"What's that thing?" asks bald Mick, "and what do you want me to do with it?" He shines his lantern on it, and once more the dwarves lose their night vision.

Brenna and Caitlin set the traps. There are so many rats in the stable that it doesn't take long for them to fill up, they get six rats.
"Two each" says Samuel, and takes a trap with a rat in it in each hand. Caitlin and Brenna do likewise.

"There was no love lost between Captain Baring and Henry Fitzroy" says Samuel, "Fitzroy was Captain Baring's commander. The Captain wanted horses so his men could chase orcs round the countryside, but Fitzroy refused. Instead he gave him that old nag, there." He points. "It was a bit of an insult, but at least he had a horse. Captain Baring was a very proud man, as you might have already figured. I suppose Lieutenant Peter gets that horse now."

"It wouldn't have been Henry Fitzroy's money" says Caitlin, "He's not mean. He's very generous with his own money".

"Fitzroy could have had Captain Baring sacked at any time, had he disliked him enough," Samuel goes on, "But he never did that. So wishing him dead? I don't see it, I may be wrong. Captain Baring wishing Fitzroy dead, yes, I'd believe that."

The three walk past a huge pile of straw and a pig sty, and then come near to the main gate, where the two dwarves and bald Mick are talking.

Rin tried not to throw Pint 'under the carriage' when Bald Mick asked the duo what they expected him to do with the increasingly bloated corpse. Carrying a pigman's load of dead while while in armor and arms was no light task, even for stout dwarves.

"Figure it's best ta have 'im examinined", Rin said after dropping the body. He'd led the march back to the gate, carrying the boar feet first. He shot a glance over to Pint. "Then we may as well cast him off ta the wolves." he doubted anybody would come searching for Pint over a wasted cultist. "Less'n ye' wantin' bacon", he quipped.

Rin knelt over the body and grabbed the chain, tearing it's clasp with dwarven ungracefulness. "This should be 'xamined too. What with the recent events an all. Moon worshippers, this shows he's one a them and was in the area." He handed it to Bald Mick.

Pint wouldn't have minded if Rin told Bald Mick that he had shot and killed the pig man. After all, in his mind the dwarven patrol had done these humans a favor of getting rid of a potentially dangerous interloper. Who knows what this git could have done to the inn? What if he was a cleric or a necromancer? They could be swarmed with skeletons or zombies, or whatever dark magics this guy could have mustered.

Besides, he knew of someone who's actual job was to handle things like this. "Ye could also show 'im to the bloody Captain. Where is that git?? No orcs 'round 'ere my bloody arse!" Pint yelled at Bald Mick, still not aware of what had transpired.

"We leave ye blokes for a minute and yer already screaming bloody murder. I dinnae wot ye humans would do without us dwarves, I swear!" He said, referring to the previous screaming.

"And where's Brenna!? She better be alright or heads are gonna start rolling!!" The angry dwarf all but threw the dead pig at Bald Mick's feet and marched inside the inn looking for his alleged charge.

"Looks like crowbait..." Brenna agreed with Samuel as he pointed out Baring's swayback horse. Lieutenant Peter sure wasn't inheriting anything worth murder in that steed.

As the walked back toward the inn carrying the now-occupied rat traps, Brenna held her two rodents awkwardly out to the side, as if the rats would bite her through the bars.

"Right here!" she called to Pint, trying to stop him before he went inside. Her eyes flicked briefly to the other dwarf and to the dead pig-ish creature, wondering if it was purely coincidence that it showed up just as the Captain was poisoned.

"Pint... the Captain's been murdered. His dinner poisoned, it seems." She held her pair of caged rats up slightly, "We're going to test the rest of the dinners... check it was only Baring that was targeted."

Brenna, Rin and Pint meet inside the gate. There is the dead creature which Pint has killed lying on the gravelly soil. A night owl can be heard overhead. Caitlin and Samuel the stablehand are with Brenna, carrying traps with captured rats in them. Bald Mick carries a lantern, and is with the two dogs, Rex and Lupus. The dogs calm down as Mistress Weather's cat darts back into the inn.
Brenna stops Pint from marching off back into the Inn. Rin removes the creature's medallion, and hands it to Bald Mick. He examines it under the lantern light. "That's certainly a moon-worshipping symbol" he says, "but exactly what that there on the ground is I couldn't say. Never seen one before. It looks like a human pig. Certainly don't want any of those hanging about near the Inn. It can't be alone, how would it survive with just a water bottle? There must be others out there with it."
He sighs.
"And you haven't heard? Captain Baring is dead. His chicken stew was poisoned. It must have been murder. Lieutenant Peter thinks he knows who did it. He thinks it was the dwarf, Dalin. Dalin was Mistress Weather's bodyguard, so he would have had access to all her drugs, and maybe also some of her knowledge. It couldn't have been Mistress Weather herself because she was sat the whole time telling fortunes. But Dalin slipped out with the Captain and you two. He thought you two had made your escape. Also, all this business about Dalin being a Firin dwarf and never telling a lie? Lieutenant Peter thinks that might have been all part of the ruse. He's questioning Dalin now."
He mops his brow. "It's a most difficult night."

As Pint started lecturing Rin about how dragging the corpse into the restaurant was a good idea, Rin scoffed. "We coulda bought the chain up here wit'out carrying the bloated body. I refuse to bring it closer to the place where people sleep an' eat. Illness is spread this way, mate." Part of the dwarf's frustration was because he could sense anxiety from the other dwarf about leaving the body out. Rin knew they had the Captain's blessing, nor would cultists be able to asses who shot the deathknell's arrow.

He was also a little surprised that others had never heard of pigmen. Rin did seem to have a lot of information on people from other places. It was likely because he was a traveler from afar who has seen and heard of many tales. He hails from the land of Luvaria, a Kingdom under King Haar IV. It's a society of mixed people, heavy in trade with three different types of elvish settlements and registering citizens of many races.

As a matter of fact, Rin knew of a war between Lizardmen and Pigmen on near a particular set of hills. He knows of some who range from black, to pale with spotted mixes of the two. Bright green pigmen are a more rare breed.. Finding one in this area was both surprising, troubling and very interesting to the stocky dwarf.

On mention of Captain Baring's death, Rin said, "Oh it was him they got? Heard something had happened...." Rin remembered the screams before Dalin left to investigate. "Flip sakes, mate."

"Ey! There ye are, lass." Pint grinned as he saw Brenna walk up to him, no worse for wear, only to scowl angrily at the news of the captain's untimely demise. "Wot!? Poison??" He grabbed at his long red hair. "Sod me, now we got a bloody murder in our hands too..." This wasn't what he had signed up for at all.

Rin telling him how it hadn't been a good idea to drag the pig man's corpse inside just made him sigh and he shrugged. "Look mate, wot's done is done. 'Sides we got bigger problems to worry about now." At least it sounded like Dalin had made it back to the inn, that was a small victory.

Pint looked down back at the pig man's corpse and he rubbed at his beard. "This bloke's probably who done it. It canna be coincidence that he shows up at night and suddenly the Captain's done and poisoned. Magic's gotta be involved! Let's get Mistress Weather in 'ere and show 'er the medallion. She's gotta know wot this all means!" Suggested Pint.

Brenna eyed the dead body on the ground. She'd never seen one of these things either and she nodded in agreement with Pint: it's sudden appearance seemed much too coincidental to be just that.

"Wait.. before we go in. There's something bigger going on and I don't know what exactly. But apparently Barring specifically ordered no one be in the watch tower tonight. The Lieutenant sent someone up there now."

It didn't add up, not to her at least, which definitely meant she was missing something important. If Baring had expected the attack and was someone covering for these pigmen... why was he the one to end up dead?

She didn't utter her own suspicions against the Lieutenant or Mistress Weather or anyone else just yet.

"Did you see that Rhinoman while you were out?" she asked. "I don't think he's returned yet." Add him to the list of suspects. Either that or his life might be in danger if he got caught up by a bunch of these pig men.

"Who is this Mistress Weather?" asks Samuel. He obviously hasn't seen her as she didn't enter the stable.
"Oh, she's wise woman, some people would say a witch" says Caitlin, "old and wrinkled, and dressed in a black shawl and with a bag of lucky charms and potions and things hanging from her shoulder. You can't miss her."
"I'll get her" says Samuel. He puts his two cages of rats on the ground, and goes to the Inn.

"We're going to have to bury that thing" says bald Mick, "or maybe burn it. There's lots of brushwood in the forest. I've now got two dead bodies in my Inn - not good for custom."

Mistress Weather comes out, she has her cat with her. The dogs again go crazy, straining at the leash and barking madly at the cat, which miaows back at them.
"Rex, Lupus" says bald Mick, "They're not usually like this" he apologises, "I'll have to get them back into the Inn." He returns to the Inn with dogs, taking his lantern. You now only have a light carried by Caitlin, though there's a bit of light from the Inn windows.
"I can hardly see" complains Mistress Weather, "and Lieutenant Peter is questioning Dalin. What will I do without Dalin? It's not safe to travel these roads without a bodyguard, particularly with my trove of valuable magical ingredients. Dalin can't have done it, he never tells a lie. You must persuade Lieutenant Peter that he is innocent."

Rin gives her the medallion.
"That's the moon between two horns" says Mistress Weather, "it's sometimes used as a symbol of evil, but it's only evil if you worship the evil aspect of it. I"ve got one myself, somewhere in the bag".
She rummages through her bag and extracts a similar medallion.
"Horns represent wealth, and the moon represents the power of the things of the night".
She draws a tarot card from the pack.
"That's the moon. See, there's a dog and a wolf beneath the moon, howling at it. That represents the tamed and the untamed aspects of our personality. Then see this lobster, crawling out of the pool? That represents the alien, the forbidden, crawling into consciousness. And these two towers flanking the moon are the same as the two horns."
You examine the card, and it is as Mistress Weather says.
"And that" she points to the dead creature, is an orc. Some people say that it's made by crossing a man with a pig. Other people say" and her voice becomes lower, "that pigs are made from degraded men, and the orc is just the mid-way of the process. They worship the moon. They won't go out in the sun, at least not willingly. What it is doing this far south, I don't know. Captain Baring said they had eliminated them all."