Travels amongst the Border Princes (WFRP 2e) IC

[dojango]

Gabriele has seen mobs before, no doubt, and this one is merely waiting for a spark of some sort. For the moment, nobody wants to make the first move...

As Conrad approaches, he sees the refugees making signs of the hammer. "Praise Sigmar" someone shouts. There is sullen silence from the larger mob in response. Sir Laurens points a sword at the village headman, who steps forward.

"Milord, one of our village girls was out gathering flowers an herbs. A fine young girl, very pretty. One of our boys was out and he saw the simpleton..." the man points in the general direction of the opposing mob "wandering around carrying her shawl. Naturally he went a looking for her, and couldn't find her. She didn't return last night, neither. So the simpleton musta done her in."

"He wouldn't hurt a fly!" one of the Imperials shouts. He steps forward. "My nephew, he's a good lad. Took a blow to the head from a bandit on our way down, and he ain't been right ever since. But he's a gentle sort, he musta found the shawl lying around and picked it up. He ain't a bad kid..."

Sir Laurens says, "It is my father's perogotive and solemn duty to attend to justice in this realm. In his name, I will hold a hearing on the morrow. In the meantime, find some space for my men and feed them. You are dismissed."

The headman nods. "It shall be as you command, my lord."

The two mobs glare at each other for a moment, before they mostly begin dispersing. Alyssa starts asking around if anyone knows anything else. She gets mostly the same story, but she does overhear one of the soldiers in Sir Laurens' party say, "Damn, I hope it wasn't that girl Elodie. Was hopin' to sneak off with her again." As she approaches two of the village girls she overhears one of them say, "Elodie got what was coming to her, I reckon." They see Alyssa approaching and they give her a cold shoulder as they walk quickly away back to the village.

The Imperial villager approaches Conrad. "It'd be a right honor if you and your friends stayed with us tonight. Give Sigmar's blessing to some of the kids. Ain't seen a man of Sigmar since we left Mendelhof. Bad business this. These soft heathens... they don't respect Sigmar down here."

[rax]

"A girl goes missing and a foreigner turns up with her shawl. Clearly there can be no other explanation than him killing her, right?" Severin says quietly to Gabriele with a wink.

"Say, friend," he addresses the lead Imperial villager, "did you say all of you came down here from Mendelhof? That's over Wissenland way, isn't it? I hadn't heard of any troubles there recently. What brings you to this neck o' the woods?"

[Haval]

Gabriele will roll her eyes a little at the villager's declaration. There were always places that you should be careful of when walking alone. Even these southerners ought to know that.

To Severin, 'You'd think they'd make sure the girl was dead before going around accusing people.' Although if she had been out for this long already. 'If I knew where to start I might be able to find out what happened to her.'

[rax]

"Maybe we should have a look around after we settle in, eh?" Severin answers Gabriele.

[DrK]

Conrad

Conrad looks over at the mobs and listens, his hand resting on the long handle of the hammer. "I would be honoured. It has been many weeks on the road since I have had a willing crowd to give a sermon too." He looks out across the blasted landscape, "How did you come to end up here? Was it the Chaos Wars?". As the others disperse and looks about he looks to Severin and Gabriele "So... trouble between the locals. No matter how small the village there is always feuds it would seem. "

[dojango]

Conrad takes a look at the surrounding lands. The area to the north is a little hilly, but the wheat in the fields is ripening nicely. Thick pasture land surrounds the fields, with a few goats and sheep meandering around the hills. It is pleasantly pastoral, although the long grasses do conceal wolves and mountain lions. The Imperial villager reaches out to shake hands. "Name's Werner Helds. Uh, last year our village was raided by orks from the mountains. The local noble went out to fight them and never returned. So we kinda left, looking for safety. Drifted down through here, wasn't easy. But this Lord Bremcote told us to settle here. Gave us some land near the village to farm. Took some of the lads for his army, suppose that's fair enough. Miss home, but not enough to trek back over that damned desert. And the stories... I hear it's bad back in the north. But yeah, we'll get a feast together for ya. Right and proper, just missed Sonnstill, but we kin do our best."

As Sir Laurens and the soldiers troop off to the main village, the sergeant hangs back a moment. "His lordship can distract the villagers for a bit if'n you want to snoop around. Gonna be dark soon, so I dunno if you want to hare off into the darkness or not, but let me know when you're goin' out and I can send a few men with you."

[Ionbound]

Alyssa frowns as she hears that a girl went missing, and looks to others in the group, saying, "Surely we can take some time to find this girl, yes? One way or another. There isn't a murder without a body, after all."

[rax]

"Much obliged, sergeant," Severin answers. "Seems that the majority opinion is that we'll be taking a look round to see what we can find a little later on. We'll see if there's any useful information to be had from this lot," he nods in the direction of the Imperial refugees. "You'd be doing us a favour if you could talk to the other villagers and get us some details like what the girl looks like, exactly how long she's been missing, and where she might have gone to pick herbs. Anything you and your men know we'd be glad to hear as well."

[Haval]

Gabriele grimaces at the mention of Orcs. Even away from the war in the north nowhere was totally safe.

In a low voice so that no villager might hear. 'If this girl has been missing for most of two days then it's possible that anything that was going to happen has already happened.' To the Sergeant, 'I'd be willing to go out but there's a lot of ground to cover when I don't know the area and the light's going.' She looks guilty, 'If anyone has a better idea then going out in the morning let me know.'

[rax]

Whispering back to Gabriele, Severin says: "If talking to the villagers - either side - gets us a place to start looking, then we can at least have a look today if the light isn't gone completely by then. If someone here is responsible for the girl's disappearance, and whatever they're up to isn't done yet, then they might feel the need to act with greater urgency now that Sir Laurens has arrived."

[dojango]

It takes a little bit of time, but the villagers are happy to share what they know, especially while casting blame on the other faction.

From the local villagers, you hear that the girl went upriver about two miles to a place called 'Fern Falls', where a small creek goes over a bluff into a small pool before flowing into the Igerang River. It is a popular swimming hole and a popular spot for young couples to visit. She was gathering fiddleheads, willowbark, and feverfew. One of the village lads sheepishly admits he had arranged to meet her about lunchtime, and was heading that way when he saw 'the simpleton' carrying her shawl around. He confronted the boy, who ran away. He went to check the pool, couldn't find Elodie, and so ran back to raise the alarm. When she didn't turn up, the villagers confronted the Imperial refugees, who refused to let them beat the truth out of the simpleton.

While talking to the Imperial Refugees, you find out that the kid's name is Peter Rentz. His mother says that he came home carrying the shawl, he said he found it near the pond. Peter is hiding in the fortified house and won't come out at the moment. Sure, he'd been mooning over the girl, but that was just young love. The lad tended to wander off at times but he always came back and would never hurt a fly.

One of the soldiers describes Elodie's ample charms to any of the other soldiers who will listen. "She's got long brown hair, deep blue eyes, a little cute nose. A mole on her hip she's sensitive about." And so on and so forth.

[DrK]

Conrad

Conrad joins with Gabriele, Alyssa and Severin in discussing the missing girl, although he nods at Gabriele's assessment of the situation. "You are likely right, It is probable that a dire fate has already befallen the girl." As Peter's mother is pointed out to them Conrad wanders up to her offering a short nod. "Madam Rentz. I am Conrad, a priest of the Heldenhammer. We understand that your son found the missing girls shawl. Could we speak with him?"

He gestures to the fortified house in the middle of the refugee camp. "I understand emotions are running high with the locals, but we will give Peter a fair hearing and then we can investigate the whereabouts of this young girl."

[Haval]

Gabriele is content to let Conrad take the lead, but will add, 'Your boy might have seen something. Even if not there's likely to be sign left out there to tell us what happened.'

[rax]

"Could be," Severin answers Conrad. "Or she might just have run away or found herself a beau from somewhere else and gone off with him. From the soldiers' gossip she's not nearly as innocent as the villagers were letting on."

He says nothing as Conrad and Gabriele try and convince the refugees to let them speak to Peter.

[dojango]

The boy's mother looks askance at Gabrielle a bit, but she says to Conrad, "I'll show you, Brother." She leads the group into the fortified house. Once perhaps a ruined manor, parts of it have been torn down for material, while the remainder has been repaired and fortified. The stairs are collapsed, so you climb up a ladder to the third floor. In a small room, a young man is sitting on a pallet. He looks like he's been crying. His mother goes to him and brushes his hair. "It's alright, Petey. You can tell the priest what happened."

In a nervous, halting speech, he vaguely describes what he saw. "Was looking for a lost lamb. Found the pretty girl's shawl. The other boys yelled at me so I ran away. She's pretty. Prettier than her," he says, pointing to Gabrielle. "When do you think she'll be back? Want to give her her shawl back."

[rax]

"Say Petey, do you think you could show us exactly where you found the pretty girl's shawl? That might help us find her," Severin asks.

[Haval]

Gabriele resists an urge to pull her hood up. She's still bruised from the blow she took to the face at the Temple. 'We're going to see if we can find her.'

[dojango]

He shrinks back in fear. "No! Too dark!" His mother soothes him a little bit. "He's been afraid to go out at night after his injury."

[rax]

"There, there, it's alright lad," Severin says, trying to calm the lad. "Maybe you can show us in the morning, eh? Seeing as how we won't be going out tonight, how about you just think about where you found the shawl. Do you remember seeing anyone else there? And before you found the shawl, do you remember meeting anyone coming from that direction while you were out looking for the lamb?"

[dojango]

Peter blushes, turning a bright shade of red. "Uh, I, went to the pond. She likes to swim there. But she wasn't there. Found her shawl, so brung it home. Then Benny saw me, and he yelled at me. So I ran home."

[Ionbound]

Alyssa sighs as she gets the cold shoulder from both the natives and the refugees, and decides that while the other three speak to the boy her time is best spent speaking to Elodie's family. She approaches the villagers, asking around about where she can find the girl's family, and strolls over to meet them if she can find out.

[rax]

For the moment, Severin decides not to interrogate Peter about his reasons for going to the pond. Instead he tries to make certain when Peter met Benny.

"So, just to make sure - did Benny yell at you at the pond, or was it later, when you were walking home?"

[rs2excelsior]

Torendil outwardly doesn't grumble about the party joining in on the search for the girl. If that's what it takes for us to be able to move along... Not being one to go around coaxing information out of the locals, Torendil mostly hangs back and lets the others do the talking. He flips through some of his books--perhaps there is a spell which can locate an object's owner?

Thinking along those lines, he has an idea about the shawl--perhaps she had been enchanted or otherwise attacked by magic, and there was still some lingering trace on the shawl? If he could get a good look maybe he could pick up on some trace magic.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I don't think there's any provision for just casting a spell you find in a spellbook in this system, right? That's still Torendil's go-to thought.

Would it be possible for him to get a look at the shawl while the others are talking? Enough to use magical sense on it?
Assuming he can: vs WP+10 (61): (1d100)[45]

[dojango]

Peter thinks for a few moments before saying, "Uh, I was walkin' home. By the old oak tree, it were, I reckon."

Torendil takes a moment to examine the shawl. Sometimes a shawl is just a shawl, however. He finds a few hairs on the shawl, long and brown. He's heard tales of unscrupulous witches using such things to cast spells on the person the hair belonged to, but his old master was very dismissive of 'foul, lazy, peasant magic'. Studying the heavens for the grand fate of nations was the proper role for divination, they had often said.

Alyssa follows the soldiers and Sir Laurens into the village. While they park the carts in a secure location, the soldiers are quartered in various huts and hovels. The village headman passes over one of the houses, saying that he wanted to leave Elodie's family alone. Alyssa goes up and knocks on the door. An older, thin man cautiously opens the door. "Any word?" he asks, before seeing Alyssa. "Who in tarnation are you?"

[Haval]

To Severin, 'So might just be a coincidence? I really don't want to start accusing people.'

[Ionbound]

Alyssa nods to the headman, but carries on to Elodie's house anyways.

When the man opens the door, she nods and replies, "My name is Alyssa. I'm here to help find your daughter. Do you know anything that might help with that?"

[rax]

"Well alright then," Severin replies to Peter with a friendly smile to show that he's satisfied with the lad's answers so far. He gives Gabriele a quick nod in response to her comment.

"Just one more thing. You were out looking for a lamb, but ended up going to the pool where you know Elodie likes to swim. Why did you do that? And did you find the lamb?"

[dojango]

The man looks at Alyssa askance, and says, "You wanna help? Beat a confession outta that kid, he'll tell ya. I just hope she's..." he trails off. "Might go searching around the the pond a bit more, I mean, we went a looking for her today, but didn't see nothing. She's a strong kid, so she must be hiding somewhere maybe."

After Severin asks Peter about what he was doing, he blushes deep red again and starts stammering and blubbering. His mother interjects sharply "See, you've upset him now. Please, let him be, he's a good kid, and doesn't mean no harm by it. The way that girl carries on... please, let us be. And no, he never found the lamb, neither, if you must know."

[Haval]

Gabriele will nudge Severin after he asked his question, 'He likes her.' Peter didn't seem capable of lying to be honest. To Peter's mother, 'Thank you for your time ma'am.'

[rax]

"That's alright Peter, sorry to have upset you," Severin says consolingly. "Thank you for letting us speak to your son, ma'am."

"Of course he likes her," Severin mutters to Gabriele as they leave. "The problem is that it sounds like he went to the pool to get a look at the girl, whether or not he was actually out there to look for a lamb to begin with. Of course that doesn't mean he did anything to her, or even that he met her, but the other villagers aren't likely to see it that way, are they?"