With the matter of my agreement to Lord Anders Ravn's mission, the matter remained to report to the Watch Sergeant Garrison Wyldehunt. I garnered some limited information regarding the others who had been tapped for this task as well as a pair of healing potions. The conversation occurred while I was writing out my official notice of re-assignment to other duties. It is important to keep appropriate records of such things.
Wyldehunt made a gracious offer to attend Hellenae in the event of my inability to return home from this task. I did note that he was ill-equipped for the volunteered task but he seemed to insist on providing services regardless. I am quite certain my wife will be quite ready to provide the appropriate gratitude in the case of this occurrence
Before reaching the Watch House, however, there was another incident of note that turned out to be of significance to later events. We were passing back through the town and came upon an altercation between a beggar and one of the local tailors: the master of the Waving Cloak, who is rather known to be something of an abhorrent individual. The beggar is a bit of fragrant individual who I now know to be of a suspicious nature, but there was no reason apparent at the time for the extreme aggression he displayed. I won't say that he deserved what would later come, nor will I confirm that some part of me felt a bit of satisfaction at some of his misfortune. But he...is not particularly well liked. Were his cloaks not of fine quality, I doubt anyone would tolerate him.
Regardless, the matter ended a bit oddly with Miss Freehand granting the tailor a coin for some reason. Given that I felt this made no sense I felt an obligation to provide the beggar with a coin, if for no other reason than that it might convince him to move onward and bring the scene to an end.
During this time, that tiefling, and I am quite aware that Miss Crest is also a tiefling, but there is a distinct difference in meaning between the grammatical structure of "a tiefling" and the structure of "that tiefling." In any case, that tiefling was in the process of snatching an apple from a cart with something less than a skilled attempt at circumventing the normal method of payment. The merchant had taken note but they had not yet called out thief.
I was already due some amount of paperwork as already referred to in this report. I had no desire to have to fill out more paperwork because that tiefling could not simply ask for the funds to purchase a decent meal. Also, there would be the matter of having to delay the mission while we decided what to deal about one of the group's members being in the jail. Also, the fine for sleight of hand was significant. As such I elected to pay for a days worth of apples.
At this we parted while the bard, Panrry Steelsong went to go speak to his manager, one Staeg Whizbang, a gnome wizard in the town. Miss Crest and that tiefling went somewhere with Nikola Gaspar, the knight seeming to take an interest in Miss Crest's druidic nature. The dwarven brewer went on back to her tavern with a rather dis-heartened pseudo-dragon.
This situation developed later when cries of fire interrupted the evening meal out our house. Fire is, of course, a particularly dangerous thing for a town. Fortunately, Hellenae is particularly well suited to cooling things off, as I suspect Sergeant Wyldehunt will experience should his wisdom fail him, and she has taught me a trick to it as well. As such, we applied ourselves quickly to join the fire brigade and kept our efforts directed at the higher flames threatening to jump to another building while buckets were applied to more accessible flames.
The tailor was screaming about his brother being stuck in the building and surprisingly, Miss Freehand exited the building soon after, coughing and wheezing, but carrying the tailor's brother. The bard was giving some definition of help in the form of holding the man's foot while the halfling, obviously suffering from the smoke, did the bulk of the work.
In the wake of the fire, I took some time to investigate the scene and looking for signs of how the fire started. Hellenae did not sense any particularly strong magic aside from the cantrips we used. But then I noticed the beggar from earlier watching us. Miss Freehand and that tiefling noticed the same individual and we all seemed to come to the conclusion that his presence was somewhat odd.
I must admit that I was on the verge of accepting the old man was simply there as a matter of coincidence until he vanished in a puff of clearly magical smoke. Miss Freehand seemed a bit shaken and focused on something, but I'm not entirely certain what that might have been. Perhaps it was simply some residual discomfort from breathing in the smoke. Regardless, it is apparent that if I am to be an effective investigator that I shall have to work on sharpening my wits. I discussed my concerns with Hellenae and we addressed the matter of insight via a game of, shall we say, mixing colors.
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