AD Dungeons and Dragons Part 6: Shooting People for Their Money.

In which we arrive in Vallaki, foist some children off on the first person who will take them, and then immediately begin investigating a theft.




Last time, the group had entered Old Bonegrinder, and with the help of a friendly (?) were-raven, defeated the group go hags using the windmill as a base to kidnap children to turn into meat pies. We also rescued (and did not burn to death!) three children from Barovia being held there. Upon searching the windmill, we also found a medallion of the Ravens hidden in the attic. Although Colin has been able to figure out what the medallion does, he has not yet taken the time to figure out how to use it.

"Look kids," Eld began, surveying the three children between the ages of 6 and 9 before him. Their clothes were torn and a few still coughed from the smoke. They were silent, looking at the group and the evident weapons around them with caution. "We're going to take you to Vallaki, and find someone there who can take you to your parents. We'd take you ourselves, but we are on a time-sensitive assignment."

"We really do need to get my sister to Vallaki," Ismarck confirmed. "Once she is safe, you are free to do as you please."

"We could all stand a little rest to recover from this, especially the children," Colin put in. "How long will it take us to get to Vallaki?"

Ismarck considered a moment. "No more than a few hours, if we leave by noon we should reach the town before dark."

"Why don't we all take a quick rest then, and then proceed on our way? Who's looking after the children?"

"Are we pressserving the children for later mealsss?" Seesil inquired. The rest of the group shot him a look, and ignored him.

"Well, not me," Sagira said. "I'm not good with kids."

"Rek will look after little ones!" Red volunteered. "Rek can throw little ones in the air and catch them! They forget their troubles with Rek's help!"

"I'll keep an eye on them too," Colin said. "Why don't we all take an hour and meet back here after that."

Seesil Side Story: While the rest of the group rested from the fight and saw to the children's injuries, Seesil observed the chickens the hags left behind. He looked at the crates and barrels and the wire cage surrounding the chickens. And he was struck by an idea. "Renewable food sssource!" he whispered. Breaking several crates into individual boards, Seesil found some nails, pulled his hammer from his leatherworker's kit, and assembled a crude box. Into the box, he inserted a slotted shelf, and on one side he attached metal bars from the chicken cage. Finally, the bipedal lizard attached some spare straps of leather from his kit to the back of the box. He grabbed two of the hens, put them in the box, closed the bars, and strapped them to his back. The rest of the chickens he let go. Smiling a sleepy lizard smile, he approached the rest of the group, his new chickens clucking in confusion behind him.

 "We're going to find someone to foist these kids off on once we reach town, right?" Sagira asked Eld, out of earshot of the children themselves. "I'm a little concerned about giving them back to their parents, in case their parents are still under the Hags' spell, but we certainly can't keep them."

"Oh I'm sure there will be a constable or temple or somewhere we can drop them off. But I wouldn't worry about the parents, it's not like they can sell the kids back to the hags, is it?" Eld said, glancing with smug satisfaction back at the windmill. "I'm pretty sure they're not going to be making any more... stuff."

"Ok, good. Childcare is just not something I signed up for on this trip." Sagira replied.

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The journey to Vallaki was uneventful. The miles went by with nothing out of the ordinary occurring, which was all to the best as the party did not want to worry about fighting off terrible monsters while protecting an additional three children.

The road meandered into a valley watched over by dark brooding mountains to the north and south. As they proceeded, the forests receded, revealing a sullen mountain berg surrounded by a thick palisade. Thick fog pressed against the walls as the party drew nearer.

The sun was about an hour past its zenith when the group arrived at the east gate of Vallaki. The gate was made of sturdy iron, and the shadowy figures of two guards could be seen standing behind the gates. Six spikes with wolves' heads impaled upon them are planted in the ground on either side of the road outside the gate.

"I presume they don't like dogs?" Arf asked, as they approached.

"Too old for sscavenging food from," Seesil observed sadly.

Eld spit at one of the wolf heads as he walked past it.

"These look like the wolves that attacked us in Barovia," Sagira observed. "Maybe that's a good sign?"

As the group approached the gate, Eld called out "Lo the gate!"

A female voice yelled back "Who goes there?"

The group was momentarily dumbfounded. "Do we have a group name?" Eld whispered hurriedly to the rest of the party. Ismarck, in the back of the group, sighed in exasperation.

"We're just simple travelers, right?" Sagira said.

"Why don't we just... go in?" Ismarck suggested with a sigh.

The group nodded in agreement and walked forward.

"We're travelers! We found some kids out by old Bonegrinder there!" Eld declared, as they got closer.

"That's fine," the woman's voice responded. "Come forward."

A man and a woman, both wearing the armor and uniform of a city watch and holding 10 foot pikes look the group over.

"Welcome to Vallaki, home of the wolf's head jamboree. We hope you enjoy your stay." The man drones in a bored monotone.

The woman kicks her partner in the shin and says in a loud whisper, "That was last week!" To the group of adventurers, she turns and says more loudly "I'm sorry about him. Welcome to the town of Vallaki! The home of the Festival of the Blazing Sun! Please, enjoy your stay in our fair town!" And with that, she opens the gates to the group.

As the party entered the town, Sagira turned to the woman who seemed more earnest than the man who already seemed to be dozing off, and asked "Is there somewhere, like an orphanage for some poor beleaguered children who have been saved on the road nearby?"

"Well, I know the priest at the church takes care of a few orphans."

"These aren't necessarily orphans," Eld said. "But they are from Barovia and will need help getting home. Come here kids! Meet this nice guard lady, she'll take care of you." He gestured the children forward. Turning back to the startled guard, he added in a pointed whisper "They're a little frightened!" More loudly he added, almost as an afterthought "But they're brave, right kids?"

"I am not currently equipped to watch children..." the woman protested.

"Do we look like we are equipped to watch these kids?" Eld asked incredulously, looking pointedly at the distracted Seesil and his squawking backpack.

"My suggestion," the guard said more forcefully, "would be you take them either to the Mardikovs at the Bluewater Inn..."

"I don't know what that is. How about we send your buddy to go get them?" Eld interrupted.

"We are not allowed to leave our post!" The guard stated adamantly.

"But you'll be here!" Eld said. "And you'll have these extra kids to help you watch! Sharp eyes, they have!"

"I would request that you take them either to the temple of St. Andral where Father Lucian can watch them, or to the Mardikovs." The guard replied.

"I don't want to get stabbed," Arf whispered, elbowing Eld in the side.

"Who said anything about getting stabbed?" Eld replied.

"The temple and the inn are not far from each other, but they are on the west side of town. It will be a bit of a walk," the exasperated guard explains. "One of those two is the best option."

"The temple is probably also the best place for Irena to stay," Ismarck points out.

"Let's just go there then." Sagira says.

The group left the relieved looking woman at her guard post, and head into the town. After a few minutes of walking down the street the group passed a large stockyard with several locked sheds along the periphery surrounding a large warehouse. A carnival wagon with faded lettering reading "Ricktavio's Carnival of Wonders" wass parked at the south end of the lot.

"Are we looking for a Ricktavio something or other?" Arf asked.

"Kids first, lets go let's go!" Eld says, marching smartly past the stockyard. Following his example, Rek picked up two of the children, holding them one in each arm and walked swiftly after the half elf, whistling tunelessly.

Before long, the group found themselves outside the church building. Rek immediately opens the door, banging the door into the wall in her enthusiasm.

Inside, the group saw a priest, looking very distracted. The priest paced back and forth in front of the altar, mumbling and holding a holy symbol to his chest. Rek marched up to the altar and places the two children she held in front of the startled priest.

Eld explains "We killed some hags, saved these kids, they need to get back to Barovia, we'll see you later!"

"Excuse me?" The priest said.

"We killed some hags, saved these kids, they need to go home to Barovia, we'll see you later!!" Eld repeats.

"Hags? What? I don't understand."

"Look," Sagira says. "There were these hags, they were evil, they were stealing people to eat them. And we saved them! But we are not equipped to help kids and the guards said you would be."

"I suppose I could watch them for you, and we could send them back on the next caravan to Barovia..."

"Great!" Eld said.

Ismarck turned to Irena and said "This may be the best place for you to stay as well."

At this, the priest looked the group over, and said, slowly "Well, maybe you can help me." His gaze lingered particularly on Arf and Colin's holy symbols. Eld slowly backs away from the group. "Let me introduce myself. I am Father Lucian, and this is the church of St. Andral. This used to be a holy site, and a pillar of our community, where people could seek sanctuary in times of trouble. But now we have a problem. St. Andral was buried under the church, and his remains somehow sanctified the grounds, which prevented Strahd and his minions from entering the church. But the saint's bones have been stolen."

"By Strahd and his minions?" Sagira asked.

"I do not know who stole them." Father Lucian replied. "The existence of the bones are a secret. I cannot think of anyone I have told about their existence before now, but I am choosing to trust you because you are holy people." This last he said to Arf and Colin directly.

Meanwhile, Eld wandered to the back of the church and located the collection box. Surreptitiously, he slipped some gold coins out of his pocket and into the box. He noticed Seesil watching him, winked, and made a gesture to express "Don't tell anyone about this!"

Seesil Side Story: Sometimes, the behavior of the squishy races confused Seesil. He had spent a long time amongst them at this point, and understood concepts such as "not eating your friends without permission" and "a coin can be worthy exchange of a service or tool". But his current companions often left him befuddled. For example, why would half-elf hungry for treasure be trying to give away his treasure? And why would he care if others knew? Seesil did not know the answers, but presumed that in time, all would be made clear. Or they would all be killed and eaten by those who were stronger than them, and then it would be a moot point. In any case, Seesil never did anything in a hurry.

 Father Lucian continued "We need to get the bones back before Strahd realizes they are gone."

Eld, rejoining the group, asked "Do you have any idea where they might be?"

Sagira "Yeah, I'm into this. You keep the kids, we find your bones. We want this to be a safe place for Irena anyway."

Father Lucian thought a moment. "I have no idea where the bones might be. I only discovered it when I noticed the holy aura they produced was diminished. I do have two others who work here, an orphan named Yes serves as the altar boy, I already take care of him, and a man named Milovaj tends to the garden and cemetery every other day."

"But you didn't tell them about the bones? If we ask people about the bones will that spoil your secrecy?" Sagira asked.

"I would prefer the existence of these bones not be revealed. Strahd would not be the only one after them if the secret got out."

"Don't worry, we are the sou of discretion!" Sagira assured him.

"Where are the bones kept?" Arf asked.

"The bones are kept beneath the church. A cement slab allows access to them through the cemetery," Father Lucian explained.

"How were you told about the bones?" Colin asked.

"I have been a member of this church since I was a child, since before Father Andral ascended to sainthood. I was at his burial, when we elevated him to sainthood."

"Why don't you just elevate more people to sainthood?" Sagira asked.

"It's not that easy," Father Lucian replied.

"Yeah, we would need at least a few miracles, there is church bureaucracy and the like, at least in my experience," Colin added.

"Also, not every saint leaves sanctified bones. I think it was because Father Andral was not shy in opposing Strahd or the repercussions of doing so," Father Lucian said.

"And how did he die?" Eld asked.

"He died of old age," Father Lucian said.

"Good for him! Who goes into the graveyard?"

"Milovaj is the only one there regularly, to trim the bushes and keep the place clean. Yeska occasionally goes out to play."

"And where are Millovaj and Yeska now?" Eld asked.

"Millovaj works every other night, he will be in tomorrow. Yeska helps me every evening though and will be back tonight."

"Where does Millovaj live?"

"I don't actually know," Father Lucian admitted. "But Yeska is probably being schooled by one of my assistants in one of the other church buildings around back."

"Then let's start by talking to him," Eld suggested. "Though I bet the gardener did it."

"Actually, maybe Seesil, Eld, Arf and Rek should go check out the cemetery, while Colin and I go talk to Yeska," Sagira said.

Once the others had left, Sagira said to Colin "We need a cover story so we don't tell Yeska about the bones inadvertently. Maybe a ring was stolen?"

"Or we can just ask him what he has been doing, and not mention the bones?" Colin suggested.

"Ooh, it is nice to have a plan for once!" Sagira enthused.

The pair walked up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the church, passing several small empty rooms as they went, looking for Yeska.

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Meanwhile, the rest of the party walked out the church's west door into the well tended graveyard. After a short time of searching, they located a central mausoleum where the saint was buried. A gate in front of the mausoleum lead to a descending staircase. The gate itself was slightly ajar. Eld immediately began looking for clues. Unfortunately, aside from a seldom locked gate, the stone stairs yielded nothing. Arf walked past Eld and headed downstairs. Eld followed shortly after, while Seesil stood outside, admiring the scenery.

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After several empty rooms, Colin and Sagira came upon a boy sitting on a bed reading a book. Sagira knocked not he open door, and plastered a false smile on her face to cover her discomfort. 

The boy looked up and said "Hi! Who are you?"

"Hi, we were just talking to Father Lucian, and he said he lost something, so we came to look for it. Have you seen anything?"

The boy looked confused. "Father Lucian lost something?"

"Yeah, have you seen anything out of the ordinary, anyone coming by when they shouldn't have? Have you found any cool stuff around lately?" Sagira said, smiling her friendliest smile. Colin nodded along behind her while watching the child's reactions carefully.

"Well, I play outside sometimes, but I don't have any toys. I usually play with sticks and such that I find. But I don't go out in the evening, it's scary. Something might come after me." Yeska said.

"Has something ever come after you?" Colin asked, intrigued.

"Well, no, but have you ever had that feeling where you just think someone is watching you, but when you look nobody is there?"

"Is there ever anything there at all, like an animal or something like that?" Colin asked.

"No, I just, it's not like it happens a lot, but when I do get that feeling I always come back inside."

"Where do you find the sticks you play with?" Colin asked.

"On the ground, under the trees usually," Yeska replied.

"Is there anything special about them?" Colin probed.

"No? Not in the real world, but I pretend they are my swords when I play."

"And you haven't seen anything unusual, any glowing sticks? You haven't picked up anything you maybe shouldn't have?" Sagira asked.

"I didn't steal anything, I swear! I didn't steal anything!" Yeska blurted at that line of questioning. "I promise, I promise," he said, breaking into tears.

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At the bottom of the stairs, Arf found a stone slab of a door, which looked like the normal end of the stairs except that the slab was pried open a crack. Eld again looked around for clues, hoping to find marks of tools that might have been used while Arf communed with his deity, searching for any signs of evil. Alf's senses reported no evil, but several small points of good shone from inside the church, where Rek and Father Lucian entertained the rescued children. Eld noticed scrapes approximately four feet up the slab, curving from the outside to the inside of the slab. Puzzling over the marks, Eld thought of both several tools and several clawed animals that could have made the marks.

Seesil Side Story: Outside, Seesil stared into the trees lining the periphery of the cemetery. He observed the small furry mammals with bushy tails that darted amongst those trees. Slowly, an idea came to him. Touching the power of nature within, his scaly body began to drop away, until Seesil himself was in the form of a squirrel. With his newfound dexterity, he scampered up a nearby tree. "Chhhtt chht chht?" *Scary recent things?* The confused squirrel in front of Seesil stared back. "Chhrrt?" *Big things scary* "Chrrt chhht chht chuuuuk?" *Scary at strange times?* "Chuk chrrt chrrrrrt chkchk." *Scary things every night.* Satisfied, Seesil scampered back down the tree. So, someone came here every night? That sounded worth knowing.

Eld and Arf worked together to pry the slab open once Eld completed his search. Inside they found a stone room enclosing a platform on which the remains should have lain. The platform was empty.  Unfortunately, so was the rest of the room. Neither Eld nor Arf could find any clues about the culprit inside.

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"He's telling the truth," Colin whispered to Sagira, while Yeska wiped tears from his face.

"It's ok, it's ok, we believe you. We just were hoping you could help us out," Sagira said, reassuringly. 

"I'm sorry," Yeska said, "I just... I was upset that someone might steal from Father Lucian. Father Lucian always looks after me. Like, one night, I had a nightmare, and when I woke up Father Lucian comforted me. He said I should not be scared because St. Andral and the warding watch over us. Even after leaving this world, St. Andral continues to protect us. I felt a lot better after that. And I don't have many friends..."

"Did you tell anyone else about this?" Sagira asked.

"Well, it made me feel really good, so I told my friend Milovaj."

"Well, thank you. That was the help we needed, and I knew you could help us kid." Sagira said, handing Yeska some silver coins. 

"Oh thanks! But what is Father Lucian missing?" Yeska asked.

"Stuff? You need to trust me, we are trying not to raise the alarm here, just quietly get this back. It's a secret, and I'm telling you that, so it's a secret we both share now," Sagira said, conspiratorially. 

"Ok, I won't say anything," Yeska agreed.

Sagira and Colin left the boy, looking for the rest of the group.

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The group reconvened inside the church, and exchanged what they had learned. 

"We want to talk to the gardener next, right?" Sagira asked, after everyone had laid out what they had found. "But he won't be back until tomorrow night and we don't know where he lives, so that could be a problem."

"Ssssomeone or sssomething doess come regularly after dark according to the ssquirrelsss," Seesil pointed out.

"So we should keep an eye out tonight, but we do have time before then," Sagira said.

Colin turned to Father Lucian. "We understand someone comes by every evening, do you know about that?"

"No, I was not aware of that," Father Lucian said.

"Well, I'm going to turn in until nightfall," Eld said, and crashed on one of the pews.

"We do have an inn in town..." Father Lucian began.

"Nope, sleeping now!" Eld called over his shoulder.

Arf walked out of the church, "I'm going to nap in the crypt, in case the holiness rubs off on me," he called out.

"I want to make some plans with Ismarck and Irena," Sagira said, "but then I'll take a rest too, so I'll take first watch I guess?"

"I'll help with that," Colin said.

Seesil curled up in a corner of the sanctuary, feeding some dry rations to the chickens in their cage before falling asleep himself.

"I think we need to set an alarm. A church should have bells, right? Let's string them up in the grass outside the mausoleum so they ring if anyone walks in," Sagira said. With Colin's help, they were quickly able to set it up, neither of them really thinking it would work, mostly just looking to kill some time before they went to sleep.

Several hours after sunset, the group changed watches. Sagira, Colin and Rek went to sleep while Eld and Seesil moved out to watch in the dark for intruders. Arf remained in the crypt, communing with the cave-like atmosphere. Eld climbed to the top of the church, watching the gates to the cemetery lest an intruder return to the scene of the crime, while Seesil wandered the fence, initially trying out a form as a cat for better vision in the dark and spent some time hunting church mice, but eventually gave that up and just sitting and listening to the nighttime sounds of this unfamiliar world. 

Around 2 am, Eld notices a figure approaching from the northwest. The figure circles around to the north and then hops over the fence. Hearing the sound, Seesil returned to his cat form. Eld grabbed his bow. As the figure approached the torchlight from the church, Eld was able to make out a man of solid physical build, who probably does physical labor for a living. Seesil, as a small grey cat, followed the man from a few paces behind, noting that the man carried a shovel on his back. The man approached the mausoleum, but just before he could enter the gate, Eld fired an arrow directly into his knee.

With a cry of pain and surprise, the man fell forward and tumbled down the stairs to the mausoleum. A clamor of bells rang out, nearly drowning out Eld's shout of "Don't move!" Arf, hearing Eld's instructions, remains still inside the crypt as a figure tumbles into sight. 

Seesil, recovering from the surprise of the arrow bursting through the back of the man's knee, pads silently into the crypt. Finding the fallen figure leaning against the platform where the saint's bones once lay, bleeding profusely from the knee and very unconscious.  

Sagira and Colin, woken by all the commotion, rush from the church to see what had occurred. Hurrying down the stairs to the crypt, Colin and Sagira found the unconscious man, with a small grey cat purring and rubbing against his leg. Arf also stood up, gave the cat a startled look, then checked the man for a pulse. Finding one, he channeled a small amount of divine healing into his hands and stabilized the man's bleeding. Seesil, shifting back to lizard form, lifted the shovel off the man's back. 

Eld soon arrived with Father Lucian, and as Father Lucian stared in confusion around him, Eld picked several copper coins from the unconscious man's pockets. "You ruined a good damned arrow," Eld mutters. 

Seesil put the shovel on his back, and then places nine silver pieces in the man's pocket. "Transactiono accomplished," Seesil said. 

Eld stared at Seesil a moment, and then pointedly removed the silver from the man's pockets and placed it in his own. Seesil shrugged.

Seesil's side note: Eld is perhaps the most confusing softskin here.

"Is this the gardener Father Lucian?" Sagira asked.

"Yes, what's left of him," Father Lucian said sadly.

"No but he is totally the thief," Sagira replied. "Yeska told your comforting story to this guy, and if this guy is at all intelligent he figured out the bones were special. It was totally him!"

"I suppose..." Father Lucian said, doubtfully.

"Also, he wasn't supposed to be working tonight, right?" Eld pointed out. "Why is he here? Also, he hopped the fence to get in."

"Ok, but, did he try to attack you? Why is there an arrow in his knee?" Father Lucian asked.

Eld did a double take. "Why is there still an arrow in his knee? Didn't you heal him?"

"Well, I stopped the bleeding," Arf said. 

Sighing, Eld snaps the arrow off. 

"Let me see if I can understand this. You are correct, Milovaj wasn't supposed to work tonight. But you shot him with an arrow, because you wanted to take his money?" Father Lucian said slowly.

"No, I shot him with an arrow so we wouldn't have to chase him through the town! Look, he's not dead." Eld said.

The tired priest, still trying to make sense of the situation, suggested "Why don't we bring him into the sanctuary, and we can figure this out." And with that, the priest began walking back to the church.

Arf hoisted the unconscious Millovaj over his shoulders and walked back to the church, followed by the rest of the group. Eld, the last to leave, took a final look around. Something didn't make sense, but he found nothing to help him figure out why. After Eld left, Sagira reset her alarm trap. Proud of having succeeded at making a working alarm that did not involve fire, Sagira filled the thoughtful Eld back to the church.

Inside the sanctuary, Father Lucian again tried to summarize events. "I agree, it is weird that Milovaj was here on a night he wasn't supposed to be working..."

"Also that he was heading into the mausoleum with his shovel!" Eld interjected.

"True, except that he goes everywhere with his shovel," Father Lucian continued. 

"Not anymore," Seesil hissed softly.

"Also weird that he hopped the fence, and not come through the door like a normal person," Eld said.

"Except that we do lock the front doors at night," Father Lucian said. "I'm just trying to figure out what warrants the arrow to the knee."

"This is what happens when you hire adventurers," Sagira said.

"If someone shows up where nobody is supposed to be, and goes into the place where things have gone missing, then yeah. I could have tried a headshot," Eld added.

"Or we could have tried the axe," Arf offered.

"Also you have magic to heal him!" Eld concluded.

"Yes, I have no problem healing him, I just don't understand why violence was necessary." Father Lucian said.

"Look, do you want a holy church or not?" Eld asked.

"I admit, if he heard Yeska's story, he probably put two and two together." Father Lucian admitted.

"Where does he live?" Eld asked.

"He doesn't have much money, so he moves around a lot." 

"Well I'm going to go find where he came from and get those bones," Eld declared, and left the church.

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Seesil Side Story: While the rest of the group conferred inside the church and Eld went to find Milovaj's residence, Seesil took his newly acquired and duly paid for shovel and walked into the graveyard. Pulling the humorous bone he had acquired a few days previously from his pack, he walked over to one of the trees and dug a hole. It had long puzzled the lizard folk why the soft skins buried dead bodies rather than consuming them as was the custom amongst their kind. Surely it was better not to let your friends go to waste, and to welcome them wholly back into the group? But perhaps there was a reason. Did new soft skins grow from the bodies of their dead? Some plants and fungi did that in the HomeSwamp. This could be an interesting experiment.

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Hopping the fence where Milovaj had entered, Eld quickly picked up the trail of the man's boots. He followed the tracks west along the street. Soon he came to the western gate, where two guards stood. 

"Lo the guards, have you seen Milovaj today?" Eld asked.

"The gravedigger? Yes, he just passed through here a short while ago."

"Do you know where he lives normally?"

"In the slums outside the gate I think."

"Could you let me out and then back in when I come back?"

"I see no problem with that citizen," the guard replied.

Leaving the gate, Eld found himself amidst a cluster of shacks. Following Milovaj's tracks he comes to a particular shack. Eld knocked, but there came no response. Shrugging, Eld pulled out his lock picks and quickly entered the shack. Inside he saw two sleeping children. He very quietly tiptoed around the shack, looking for the bones. It didn't take long. He found only a footlocker full of tattered clothing, the beds the children were on, and a makeshift bed on the floor. Feeling a little bad for the children, Eld slipped one gold piece for each of the pair into the footlocker, and locked the door on his way back out.

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Upon his return, Eld related all he had seen.

"Are you sure he took the bones then?" Father Lucian asked.

"Well, he could have hid them under the kids' beds, I didn't dig that far." Eld replied.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Milovaj finally woke around dawn. 

"Hey, you fell down the stairs!" Arf said kindly, as the man starts rubbing his head.

"We know what you took," Eld said more seriously.

"My head... I remember an arrow? Where am I?" Milovaj said.

"We just need to know where you hid the bones," Sagira said.

"What bones?"

"The bones you stole from the church," Sagira explained.

"I didn't steal any bones," Milovaj said.

"We know about your kids," Arf said, pointing at Eld, who was holding the bloody arrow.

"Ok, please don't hurt them. The coffin maker, he paid me. He said if I took the bones he would give me money, and I don't make much money, I need to take care of my brother and sister!"

"How did the coffin maker know he wanted the bones?" Sagira asked suspiciously.

"I don't know I swear," Milovaj replied. "He's over by the town square, I don't know anything else! Just please... I forgot to close up the tomb completely the other night, so I was coming back to finish that."

Sagira nodded. "That sounds like the truth to me."

"Did you use your shovel to open the tomb?" Arf asked.

"Yes."

"When you use your tools in bad ways, you lose them," Eld said righteously. "We're very disappointed in you. You should talk to Father Lucian before this sort of thing happens." As he walked away, he muttered "it was a good arrow."

Concluding the interrogation, the group met up with Seesil outside and began walking towards the town square to the east. Arriving at the town square, the group saw that the homes and shops surrounding the square were decorated with painted boxes and tiny dead flowers. At the north end of the square were several stocks, each locked around men, women, and children, all of whom were wearing plaster donkey heads. In the center of the square, townsfolk drawing water from the crumbling stone fountain eyed the group suspiciously. An impressive statue of a man facing west stood in the middle of the fountain. All around the square were posted proclamations that read:

Come One, Come All, to the greatest celebration of the year, the Wolf's Head Jamboree! Attendance and Children are mandatory. Pikes will be provided. All will be well! All will be well! - The Baron

 The group continued through the square. "That's not what donkeys look like..." Seesil observed, as they passed the stocks. Following the directions of townsfolk they asked not heir way, the group headed east and south from the square. Along the way, they saw a group of town guards taking down posters for the Wolf's Head Jamboree under the supervision of a large, intimidating guardsman who had a large sword strapped to his back and a second sword at his side. Other guards were putting up new posters to replace the old ones. The new posters read:

Come One, Come All, to the greatest celebration of the year, the Festival of the Blazing Sun! Attendance and Children required! Rain or shine. All will be well! All will be well! - The Baron.

"What an odd man," Sagira remarked.

"Not the word I would have used," Eld said.

"Well, we just shot a man in the knee, so we may not be the most upstanding people," Arf pointed out.

Soon the group reached the coffin maker's shop, located near the stockyard they had noticed the day before. The building was two stories tall, with a picture of a coffin over the front door. All the windows were shuttered tightly shut, and the area was deathly quiet. Walking up to the front door, Arf discovered it was locked. Eld got to work with his lock picks, but found the tumblers challenging, and it took him some time.

"Should we knock?" Arf asked. Eld glared at him.

"Well, I sense something faintly good in the area," Arf said, while Eld worked.

"Something seems off around here though," Sagira said.

"I got it!" Eld says, as the lock comes loose. He pushes on the door, but the door still resists. Eld immediately checks for traps, but determines there is just a barricade on the other side. Quietly, Eld attempts to force the door open. It barely moves, until Arf lends an arm. They successfully force the door open after a few moments of pushing. The obstruction turned out to be some wooden boards leaned against the door, as well as some carpentry debris.

Inside the room, arranged around the walls, were thirteen wooden coffins, and a pair of doors. Eld again checks the doors for traps, but finds nothing. Colin, Sagira and Seesil began opening coffins, looking for anything strange, but the coffins were empty. Arf walked to the western door and opens it. Behind the door was a staircase leading to the second floor. Eld opened the eastern door. A room behind it contained a table surrounded by four chairs, with two cabinets next to it. A third door lead to the west side of the building. The cabinets were filled with rotting wood and detritus.

In the first room, Sagira and Seesil opened each of the thirteen coffins, none of which were made of rotting wood, each of which was empty even of bones. Eld moved to the final door on the first floor, followed by Arf and Colin. They found the next room to be a carpenter's workshop, three sturdy tables lining the wall, and several carpentry tools strewn about. Inspecting the tools, Eld determined  they were mediocre in quality, thus probably not worth stealing for resale. Arf opened a window. Seesil and Eld felt a sensation as though something were watching them.

Seesil walked around the workshop, gathering one of each of the carpentry tools. In exchange, he left 9 copper pieces on a table. Eld glanced  at the copper, sniffed, and left it as not worth his time. Satisfied that he performed the exchange (of taking something he wanted in exchange for money), Seesil left the room, following the rest of the group upstairs. Sagira's heavy footfalls cancelling Eld's attempt at stealth.

At the top of the stairs, they found two more doors, one leading to the east and one to the west. Eld checked the west door for traps, and finding none, opened it. Inside they found a kitchen, containing a table, a wash basin, and several old plates. The feeling of being watched persisted. Eld also noticed a faint smell of death and rot. One further door lead to the north.

Sagira began rummaging around in the kitchen, finding old pots and other kitchen utensils, but discarded all of it. Arf, picking up on the smell of death, followed the smell to the door to the north. Opening the door, he found a bedchamber, with a bed, bookshelf, and wardrobe inside. Rather more noticeable was the body of the old man on the floor, a spray of blood showing the direction from which his neck had been cut.

"There's a dead man in here," Arf called over his shoulder. Arf checked to see how long the body had been dead while Eld and Colin searched the room. Based on the signs, the body had been dead somewhere between five days and a week. Sagira returned to the other room, trying to keep her breakfast down.

Seesil, observing the wound on the neck of the man, deliberately drew one of his wooden javelins and drove it through the heart of the corpse. "To be sssafe," he explained. Then he threw a blanket from the bed over the body.

"This is where the good feeling is coming from," Arf said, at which point Sagira came in to help the search. However, Arf ended up being the one to find the two bags hidden in the closet. The larger bag held the bones the group was searching for. The smaller bag, much to Eld's delight, contained a large amount of coins in various denominations.

As the group began to leave the room, a loud shattering noise rang from the first floor, closely followed by a second, a third, a fourth. "That sounded bad," Eld observed, as he opened the window in the kitchen. A quick peak outside showed no figures waiting in ambush, so Eld quickly fed a rope down the outside wall. Sagira went first, losing her grip halfway down and landing heavily on the soft earth below. Colin followed her out, landing with more grace. Arf leapt nimbly out the window and landed in a heroic pose.

Two very pale windows chose that moment to leap out of the ground floor windows. One of them pointed at Arf. "He has the boness! Give uss the boness, and we will let you live!"

Eld and Seesil, still on the second floor, observed the new figures. Eld fired an arrow into the head of the first figure, who did not seem to notice. Two more figures emerge from the building, hissing "give uss the boness!"

Seesil, deciding he would be more useful on the ground, shapeshifted into a monkey, scampered down the rope and to Colin's side, and returned to his normal form.

And with that, the session ended. Next time, Fight or Flight?!