11 Erathisway 4520: Ethiss - Day 2

Arkomir writes...
We are having breakfast downstairs the next morning, when Zara comes in and asks if we have seen Leif as he did not come home last night. She tells us that he went to speak to Jasper but did not come home after. She insists on coming with us as we investigate. We head out and she gives us some information about Jasper Birch on the way.
We start walking across to the Stepping Stones rehearsal space and office as the city starts to come to life for the day. We cross over Sunburst Plaza again, and head roughly south into the town of Ethiss, passing close to the park and the Iron Kettle. On the way, we talk to Zara about the state of things inside the Stepping Stones. She tells us that they are contracted players and Jasper Birch holds the contracts. They are paid but it is never enough to pay out their contracts so that they could leave the group and Ethiss. Very few performers have left the Stepping Stones. There are other companies in town as well, and they are competitive, but still convivial. Zara is taking us to Jasper’s house, which is about a block from the Iron Kettle, on Harmony Way. We stop at a large warehouse style building with a small cottage next door, with a sign saying The Stepping Stones. The warehouse is the practice space, they live upstairs, Jasper lives next door in the cottage. Outside the warehouse, Jax and Aelithara are standing outside. Jax calls out to Zara saying that they should be rehearsing, and she responds that we have been looking for Leif. Jax comes over, trying to console Zara. We head upstairs to check out Leif’s room to see what he may or may have left behind. Before we do so, I speak to Aelithara and she agrees with me to get things back to a normal day. This may help us with changing the energy in the building as we have a look around.
Upstairs in Leif’s room, after Katya picks the lock, we find that the bed has not been slept in. His instruments are not here but we find a storage chest but it looks empty except for a small dark bag at the bottom of the chest that contains some strings, oil and a cloth. Under the bed, we find a discarded waistcoat and some boots. We assume that someone has cleaned the room out but maybe not Leif. We decide to speak to Jasper next, and then find Leif. Heading back to the stair, the panels on the wall spark my interest. We investigate this more closely, and find a secret doorway that appears locked from the other side. Upon investigation, we learn that this passageway would lead to Jasper’s cottage. We decide to leave Katya here to work on opening the door, as we go to speak to Jasper. If she gets in, she will try and work out the mechanism and station herself on the other side of the door.
We head outside, and then back to the cottage front door. We knock and are greeted by the enigmatic, tall visage of Jasper Birch. He is well attired with many rings on his fingers and one visible gold tooth. Dharra casts detect magic and some of his rings are magic and some thing in the room on a shelf are as well. Leif did come to see him last night where they shared a drink and a talk. He says that Leif was a little incensed with their discussion. There do appear to be signs of a scuffle and a slight scent of blood in the air. Dharra investigates the mugs on the table and the damaged chair. Jasper ties to usher us out to continue with his day. We ask him to write a note dismissing Leif from the troupe. We message Katya again and she tells us her findings upstairs. The doorway leads through to a bedroom on the cottage side. We hear Jasper heading upstairs and tell Katya to get out but keep watch upstairs if possible. Jasper stepped through the door, looked around, then went back and locked the door. We wait for her downstairs for Katya, keeping an eye on the cottage door. I head around the back of the cottage too see what I can find, whilst Katya and Dharra keep an eye on the front door. Jasper appears at the window, and speaks a word that stuns me. Dharra and Katya come round the corner and the battle is on…
We defeat Jasper, just, who turns out to be a fiend of large size. We loot some magical items from his office and look around for the contracts as well. We have a thorough check of this room and the desk but don’t turn up any contracts per se. We find a trap door and head down to see if we can find Leif. I head down the stairs first and have a look around. We sense some magical items in this basement as well as a small chest. In the chest is a bunch of gold, including the pouch we gave to Leif. We take half the gold to give back to Zara, plus the pouch we received from Arabella. We have a look at the shelves. We find Leif’s severed head, two vials of grey liquid plus a head in a jar of red liquid that was once Jaspers actual head (now decaying). We check the rest of the house, and find the contracts. After looking through these, each of these contracts have a spot of blood on them. We gather ourselves back in the front room, Dharra goes and gathers Zara and we have a chat with her about what we have found. She follows Dharra into the front office of the cottage. We lay out today’s proceedings with Zara and she is, understandably, shocked. We hand over the coin and the contracts and the gold to her. We take a short rest whilst Zara goes and gets a city guard. We are investigated by them but tell our story and are generally believed.
By lunchtime, we are free to wander about the city again. Zara and the rest of the company are clearly shocked by what has transpired but are supporting each other. We leave them to their thoughts and spend the rest of the afternoon resting and some shopping for general supplies. We get some lockpicks as part of our shopping as well. We settle back in The Tipsy Grape, Dharra sends a letter to Arabella to inform her what has transpired. Dharra carves a small Leif from a piece of wood she purchases in town as well. During the afternoon, Zara finds us and the troupe will perform tonight at the spots they were supposed to perform - they will dedicate those performances to Leif. They will figure out the next steps in the coming days. We settle in and take in the performance at the Tipsy Grape of Zara and the her troupe. It is an excellent performance - a fitting send off for Leif. A few extra folk are in the Tavern tonight - people from other groups, paying their respects. We leave a good tip for the Stepping Stones at the bar as well.
Toward the end of the night, Zara comes over to us and embraces each of us. She thanks us for what we did for them today. She thinks she may head home (to @Stoneshadow) with some of the members of the group and then travel The Rim for a bit. Dharra and Zara get into a discussion about Melody and The Cleansing Wave for a bit. Katya and I talk through how that fight played out and possible tactics moving forward. Numerous members of the Stepping Stones stop by before heading out, thanking us for today. We head upstairs to rest, Dharra casts Tiny Hut in the room again. We check our wounds and Katya head to bed together, whilst Dharra sleeps alone.
Katya and I chat into the night, after setting some ground rules, we roll in the sheets whilst Dharra snores.