Episode 4 - Mystery in Pioneer's Stride
Peril amongst the Pioneers
Having just arrived into Pioneer's Stride, the gang found themselves at Strider's Station, the main trading post of the town. There they met Ginny Marwood, the foreman of the outpost, who also happened to be from Sojourn. She gave the group a brief description of the points of interest around, and mentioned that the town's mayor Hearnald might be interested in utilizing their services. After a brief detour to the Bastion for some supplies, the group decided to head the Earnest eagle inn for a quick breakfast before seeing the Mayor. After some shenanigans involving the slight traumatization of a small child, the breaking of a lute and the subsequent bribing of the owner of said lute, the gang were fed and ready to see the mayor.
They first met Nurn Silkton, the drow secretary, who saw them through to the Centaur mayor Hearnald. The mayor explained that he had reason to believe that someone in town was reporting the movements of mercenaries and civilians in the area to someone, leading to the increase in coordinated attacks in the region. He also explained that there were those in town who were not happy with his leadership during these tumultuous times. The group accepted the mission and set to work on finding the culprit. They returned to the Bastion and met Carthon Holmes, the lieutenant who found a dead drop intended for the informant. While Lyra developed a very immediate crush on Carthon, the gang headed to the head of the guard Gortha for more information. Gortha gave some insights on some of the characters around town, mentioning that the owner of Rockroot farm, Bom Timble, didn’t like Hearnald very much, so the gang decided to investigate.
With the farm on their list of places to go, they first attempted to stop off at Mother Fen's school, with Lyra eager to see Mother Fen again. However class was in session, so they instead decided to head straight to the farm. Along the way Necrid felt like someone was watching their movements, but couldn’t see what. In spite of this, they quickly hurried along to meet the Tortle owner Bom and get some insights from him. He didn’t prove to be much help, but the group did find their interest piqued by his daughter, a Tiefling named Gerb. The group met her by the windmill, where she claimed she had seen invisible creatures around the watermill. They believed her story and, much to Gerb's excitement, gave her some basic training and a javelin so she could assist them for a time. At the watermill they found a den that appeared to be home to some small creatures behind the waterfall, as well as a dead drop inside the watermill detailing a meet at the Parsonage graveyard in the evening. They did also see a silhouette of an invisible creature, but were unable to catch it. Arcim left a magic snare at the den, and the group headed back to the windmill to debrief Gerb.
After convincing Gerb to stay put (with the Javelin), the group returned to dead drop to the watermill, and waited for the culprit to pick it up. Eventually a dwarf woman came and picked up the note, so the group decided to split up, with Yedahlia and Arcim staking out the waterfall den, whilst Lyra and Necrid tail the dwarf woman. Yedahlia and Arcim waited around, but nothing tripped the traps. They then headed back to the Earnest Eagle Inn for some drinks. There they befriended Bilm and Dilm Penchant, brothers who worked at Strider's Station. Yedahlia managed to find out that Dilm was taking bribes to let certain items go 'missing' and positioned herself to be 'protection' from those that were bribing him.
Meanwhile, Lyra and Necrid followed the dwarf back to the parsonage. They entered to investigate, meeting the head of the parsonage, Drema Mjurn. They exchanged pleasentries, and then made excuses to continued following the dwarf deeper inside. The dwarf appeared to be in a state of trance when Lyra and Necrid were following her, but after they lost sight of her for a few minutes, they saw her returning from upstairs looking back to normal. Necrid had a talk with her (finding out her name was Steph Stump) in the clinic, assisting her with some healing before she headed upstairs with a headache. Lyra snuck upstairs to follow her, investigate her room and the rest of the dorms. She didn’t find anything, but then broke it Drema's room, where she found the dead drop note. Hearing footsteps, she hid under the bed and witnessed Drema speaking with 3 invisibility-capable imps. They told her that a man named Rorik would be sending a proxy to meet with her tonight, and that a group of mercs were onto them. The imps and Drema left the room, the Lyra made her escape out of the window.
The gang regrouped at the graveyard outside the parsonage (after Lyra circled back round to get Necrid, getting past an awkward encounter with Drema), and saw a locked entrance to a basement on the side of the parsonage. Lyra was unable to pick the lock, so Yedahlia broke through the lock with brute force and led the group into the darkness.
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