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Writer's pictureHeather Dougherty

Adventures in Alfield: H-ho-horses!

Updated: Jul 28, 2022

Three adventurer's from different points in Exandria are in receipt of a letter:

Watchmaster Bryce Feelid

They all journey to the small wood as they were directed and converge into a small clearing where they see a person that they all assume to be Bryce leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. The fair half-elf wears an expression of concern as he looks up upon hearing their footsteps approaching. He sees a shy, stocky blue tiefling with downward curved horns, her expression seems vacant or distracted as she hugs her staff close to her with one twig adorned hand and in her other, she lovingly holds a rather large egg. He looks over and has to look upward as towering above him stands an 8ft tall goliath with a gleaming smile, muscles bulging from under the chainmail she wears, a greatsword on her back, and a shield as big as she is! The handaxes on her belt look like child's toys in comparison with her large stature. Right as Bryce was about to greet them out popped an eager young wizard with flowing purple robes inlaid with sparkling gems. His fiery red hair is disheveled and some sticks out at odd spiky angles. In one hand he holds a disorganized yet bedazzled spellbook with all manner of papers and notes hastily stuffed into it and in his other hand a staff with a bright light at its tip which he waves around with a flourish.

"I am Cheato De Russo, here to save the day!" He says with a fanfare of sparks and flashes.

They all make introductions Daughtte the goliath and Fawna the shy tiefling. Bryce addresses them after the niceties, "Thank you so much for coming, I see you were in receipt of my letter. I do hope you'll be willing and able to gather the information to see what is afoot."

"We're in!" Cheat-O cuts in excitedly raring to go.

Bryce claps his hands together gratefully with a relieved sigh, "Good, good. We've just had a merchant caravan arrive late last night, they were showing the same signs and mannerisms that I'm finding peculiar with the others. They're staying at the Feed & Mead in town. Speaking of town, I really should get back to my station. Please, I don't want them to know about this, so we can't arrive in town together so if you could please wait a while before arriving so we aren't seen together I would greatly appreciate it. They won't tell me, but maybe they'll tell you all."

They watch as Bryce walks away and Cheato whispers, "I don't think he likes tieflings," to which Daughtte laughs boisterously. "So, we should get buddy-buddy with the caravan people at the feed and mead, sounds easy enough!"

Left to Right: Cheato DeRusso, Fawna, and Daughtte.

As they discuss and finalize their plan of infiltration for information, they start walking toward town. Daughtte adds, "You know, I think we need a fallback plan. Rent a cart, pretend to be merchants and just see what happens on the road if the merchants don't want to confide in us either."

Fawna sidles up alongside Cheato clutching her egg in a protective grasp then whispers, "Is this really going to be ok?" she then looks over at the large goliath making sure not to make any eye contact with her.

"Of course! That's muscles, muscles are good! You need 'em for adventuring! Enemies tend to go for muscles first" Cheato exclaims with a smile following her gaze.

"It's just ... she's so, big," Fawna whispers again.

Ahead of them due to her long stride, Daughtte looks back at them over her shoulder, "You signed up for adventure right?"

"Yes, I guess. Should we be sneaky?" feeling a bit more confident than a moment ago asks.

"I don't think I could," Daughtte laughs a bit.

"We shouldn't need to be, we just need to get them to talk," Cheato reminds.

They make their way under the morning sun into town and can see how small it really is, if you were riding a horse and you blink, you'd pass it by completely. Aside from a few cottage homes and farmland they see a general store called The Broad Barn, an unassuming Candleglow Inn, Ruddy Top Butchers, On the Wind Stables, and across from that; the Feed & Mead Inn and Tavern, just past that, the Salt Trench Jail.

Seeing the sign of the Feed & Mead, an idea comes to Daughtte, "People open up after some drinks!" she says excitedly, "Cheato, you should go first."

"Sure!" Cheato takes the lead and they approach the Feed and Mead. He bursts through the door, his energy much larger than himself he says loudly as the few patrons and barkeep stop and stare, "Boy do we have a lot of horses to sell!" He saunters up to the bar as Daughtte and Fawna follow behind. Noticing that Cheato rudely left the door open, Fawna quietly shuts it with a wave of her finger. "Do you know anybody that needs to buy any horses?" Cheato asks the barkeep scrunching his face with a wink as he leans on the bar.

"What are you doing with your face are you ok?" the barkeep Crute replies.

"Oh yes, we're good, just need to get rid of these H-ho-horses." Cheato says with great emphasis on the word horses and a double wink.

A little confused and a little concerned for the man in front of him, he slowly replies, "Perhaps you've come to the wrong side of the street, right across the way you'll find On the Wind Stables if you need anything to do with horses. But I tell ya' if you're looking for a bit of food and drink, we can definitely help you."

"Thank you, yes," Cheato's shoulders fall and they are shown to a table.

"I'm Crute, I'll be taking care of ya today, what can I get you to drink?" the barkeep looks at them expectedly as they take their seats. "We have water, milk, apple juice and I know it's morning but if you're looking for something a bit stout-y-er, we have that too."

They place their order, Cheato ordering apple juice for Fawna and a stout for himself as Daughtte hopes that they have sheep's milk. As Crute walks away Cheato says, "Ugh, he thinks I sell drugs. We don't have drugs or money."

"We could have started with the no money part," Daughtte states.

"But that's the point, we have to lie!" Cheato states matter-of-factly.

"We don't have to lie, we have to ask questions and solve problems," Daughtte reminds. "See, I'm the thinker."

"But if people want help, can't we just ask, and then they say yes or no? I mean, I'm not so used to all this," she gestures at the very few people in the room, "but I know if I needed help and my mom asked me I would say yes."

"Yes, let's go up to their rooms," Cheato suggests ready to get going on their task.

"Yeah, we can wait to have breakfast," Daughtte agrees.

"Oh wait," Cheato's eyes get big as an idea comes to him, "we could bring them breakfast! eh?" He says enthusiastically elbowing Daughtte. They all nod in agreement and end up ordering five egg and toast breakfasts for the 5 occupied rooms upstairs. Not too long after they place the order with Crute, he returns with their food. The dishes look unappealing to say the least. Some of the eggs were runny, some overdone, and some of the toast was burnt or barely looked toasted at all! It's amazing it came out of the same kitchen! They discuss their breakfast-in-bed plan.

"You two bring the breakfast, I'll wait here and keep an eye out and distract them," Cheato says gesturing with a swoop of his arm at the practically empty tavern.

"I'm too big!" Daughtte exclaims throwing her arms up as if it wasn't plain to see, "Sometimes strangers can be a bit intimidated, you know. Just saying," she shrugs.

"Fawna, you can talk to them, right? I'll put on a performance." Cheato looks over at the shrinking violet tiefling, clutching her egg for dear life.

"How hard is it to carry?" Fawna asks pointing to the plates of eggs quite anxious at the idea of ... talking. "I can't leave this here," she adds pulling the egg into her chest even tighter.

"I see where this is going," Daughtte says slowly eyeing up the large egg as her stomach grumbles.

"Egg left equals breakfast," Cheato nods in agreeance as Fawna's eyes grow large as saucers at the atrocity of the thought!

It's decided that Daughtte, though large will carry it up and Fawna will do the talking. They gingerly stack the plates on Daughtte's beefy forearms, and Fawna leads the way up the stairs. Cheato takes a sip of the stout and makes a face of disgust as he watches Daughtte's show of extreme prowess and focus in her balancing act up the stairs, successfully making it up without dropping so much as a crumb. At the top of the stairs, Fawna looks at Daughtte and says hoping to sound helpful, "I can take one plate at a time and bring it in."

"Just knock and see what happens," Daughtte replies with a careful shrug.

Fawna approaches the first door and knocks gently, then again a bit harder and she hears a grumble, "What you want?"

"We have breakfast," Fawna responds nervously and looks again at Daughtte as the door swiftly opens to reveal a groggy half-orc that swiftly snatches the plate with the burnt toast before briskly shutting the door. Fawna jumps in surprise, "Uh, I guess let's check the next one?"

They move to the next door and knock. Nothing. They knock again. Still nothing, but after a moment they hear snoring coming from within. "We'll try the next one," Daughtte says then quickly adds. "One breakfast for me!"

Fawna has to look down when the next door was answered by a half-awake halfling woman, "Ugh, breakfast? I can't even think about food before my morning tea. Could you bring some of that up?"

"Uh, sure!" Fawna confirms as the halfling woman thanks them and retreats back into the room.

"Only two rooms left, and now I have 2 breakfasts," Daughtte says while licking her lips.

Thinking this hasn't been going too well, Fawna steels herself to knock on the next door which is immediately answered by a pleasant dark-haired woman who greets them with a sweet smile, "How can I help you?"

"We've brought breakfast," Fawna manages a shy smile with her reply.

"Oh, great," she says moving to the side and gesturing them into the room. "Just put it over there please, and quietly, the boy is still sleeping.

With a glance around the room, they see a small lump under the covers of the large bed that must be the boy she spoke of. Judging from the modest dress of the woman, it seems a bit odd as this must be a suite of sorts with its more affluent dressings and amenities compared to any other inn they'd seen. Then again, they probably were in no status to be able to afford such things so early in their adventuring career. It's definitely curious and they take note of it.

"We weren't expecting this, how very kind, is this usually what is done here? We normally stay at the Candleglow Inn," she says as they set down two plates on the sideboard, Daughtte reluctantly giving up what she had thought was going to be her second breakfast.

Both Daughtte and Fawna find this statement also intriguing when Fawna pipes up when Daughtte shuts the door, "We're here to help."

"Yeah, we heard some merchants were being bothered on the road, do you know anything about that?" Daughtte asks.

The woman visibly gets a bit nervous and instinctively looks over at her sleeping son, "We really are good people you know, we may be nomadic in our trade, but we're good people. You seem nice, and you're offering to help, and I would hate to see this happen to anyone else..." She trails off a bit before saying, "maybe we should talk about this with the caravaner, he's right next door."

"Yes, I should go get Cheato," Fawna states, quickly exiting and making her way back to Cheato, they finally have a lead!

Cheato had been sitting patiently, he had first tried the Bumbach stout, but it was not at all to his liking so each time he pretended to drink it he poured it out bit by bit right onto the floor. By the time Fawna was coming down the stairs, the drunken distraction performance was underway! Cheato was standing near the table, his purple robes billowing as he twirled his staff in a show of sparks and flashes exploding from the ends when Fawna came up to him in a fluster unable to speak. "Is this when another egg gets laid? are you ok?" he asks concerned.

"Up-up-p-stairs," she manages to get out while pointing up.

"Oh, the horses, I understand," he says as he stops spinning his staff and gets ready for business.

"Right," she sighs in relief that her stammering didn't confuse things. "Right this way."

They go into the last room and see that Daughtte is there with the woman and a man that looked a little confused. "What's going on Briny, what's this about?" he asks the woman next to him sternly.

"We brought you breakfast," Daughtte smiles widely and hands over one of the plates. She still has one left!

"They're here to help ... you know, with what happened, so nobody else is put in that position..."

With a sigh, he regales the events of how bandits had stopped them on the Amber road where they were threatened with their livelihoods or lives ... or else ... The caravan chose the or else and begrudgingly agreed to take a shipment of their goods, drugs by the name of Suude, past Bryce at the gates of Alfield and deliver it under a trough in the far pasture of On the Wind Stables. They also find that they usually stayed at the Candleglow Inn because it's more in their budget but they were told they had earned a stay at the Feed & Mead due to their 'favor'. The Caravan Master and Briny thank them for looking into it and how dreadful they feel because they like and respect Watchmaster Bryce, the last thing they want to do is smuggle drugs into his town and get arrested!

"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of it and Bryce won't have to know," the party assures them as they make their leave back down to their table.

"Don't forget your breakfast it'll get cold," Fawna points out to Daughtte.

"Yes, time for our breakfast," Daughtte looks down at her plate eager to get started.

"Is this a lot?" Fawna asks holding up her gold pouch which was pretty hefty in comparison to both Daughtte and Cheato.

Daughtte looks over at Cheato, "Is Fawna a pirate?"

"Fawna, is paying for breakfast!" Cheato exclaims decidedly.

"Yes, I'll get breakfast." Fawna concedes.

"Put that away! I will help," Daughtte insists and puts Fawna's gold pouch back in her pack. "We will have you pay when it's necessary. For now, Cheato's got it ... right? she glares at Cheato waiting for an answer.

"I'm not paying for breakfast, you already did," Cheato responds haughtily pointing at the half-eaten plate in front of his large friend.

Realization and a look of horror cross over Fawna's face as she exclaims, "Oh no! We never brought that woman her tea!"

"We have to do that. Come on," Daughtte says reassuringly. They hastily order the tea and bring it up to the room where they were rightly chastised for taking so long. They return to the table and discuss other things; like Fawna's egg. Which turned into when Cheato telling Daughtte that the egg would grow forever when Daughtte asked Fawna when it was due to hatch. Daughtte thinks for a moment but doesn't think that an egg could grow forever, but tieflings definitely lay eggs, that she is sure of. They leave the tavern and see the rain has cleared up and the sun is shining. They find a quiet secluded area where they can discuss teir actual plans and next steps.

"First, we should get info about the suude at the stables," Cheato suggests.

"I think we should tell Bryce what we've found out about the suude," Daughtte offers.

"But if we go tell him, wouldn't that lead him right to the caravan?" Fawna reminds, "we still don't know what's going on really."

"OK, we check the stables, tell the guards to look at the barn, and there you have it! Problem solved!" Daughtte declares.

"I thought you were the thinker," Fawna looks over at her large companion.

"I'm more of an anti-bullshit artist," Daughtte clarifies.

"The grass is always greener," Cheeto adds.

"With bullshit?" Fawna asks.

"Yes! it's a fertilizer," he says pointedly before continuing on. "We stake out the stables, I can get a man on the inside, don't worry about that..."

"Is it you? Are you the guy on the inside," Daughtte asks dully.

"When have I ever done you wrong?" Cheato cries out in disbelief

"I never got breakfast," Fawna softly interjects.

"Poor kid can't have breakfast in a town riddled with drugs!" Daughtte complains.

"Is it a big deal that stuff?" Fawna asks.

"Oh, it's pretty good stuff!" Cheato proclaims with a hint of nostalgia. "Gives you a head rush, enhances your senses, and magick... they make it from residuum..." They find that he had indeed experimented with it in college, but nothing too heavy. He tells them that it's illegal because it gives magic users a bit of a boost. "... so you wouldn't really know whether someone's spellbook was enhanced or not for academics or tournaments and the like." After saying that, Cheato has a realization, 'why the heck would Suude be down here in a small farming town?'. "You two get breakfast, I'll go check out the stables."

"If you run into trouble, yell," Daughtte calls after Cheato as he makes his way towards On the Wind Stables.

Cheato moves along through the long grass as inconspicuously as possible before shaking one of the sleeves of his rob where out pops a little ferret, "OK Mr. Mugwuggles the 17th, you know what you gotta do." He takes a seat and makes himself comfortable while his own vision fades, and is replaced with that of Mr. Mugwuggles the 17th. The ferret easily scampers into the barn without anyone being the wiser and takes a look around. A black dragonborn can be seen going about regular barn chores. He then starts sniffing around for the illegal substances that might be hidden when he is reminded telepathically by his wizard that he'd be better off sniffing around the trough in the back pasture for the good stuff. The small beast does exactly that only to find that under a bit of disturbed hay is a small dug-out spot of ground where something used to be, but is no longer there. 'It's already taken,' Cheato thinks as he hears the ferret telepathically let him know that he smells dragonborn, and yes it smells the same one as in the barn.

Daughtte and Fawna decide to check out the Candleglow Inn instead of going back to the Feed & Mead. Upon entering they immediately feel a difference in the ambiance compared to the Feed & Mead. It's quaint and modest and comfortable and they soon find that Mr. Thadeus Candlegolw the gnome innkeeper is quite agreeable. They are the only patrons and in their conversation, they find that all of his usual customers have been choosing the Feed & Mead over his establishment for the past couple of months and he has no idea why. The lunch specials are Stew or Sandwiches, they decide to try one of each and are glad that they did. The care and the quality that Thadeus puts into his business is evident; delicious! While they chew they chat, "Ded we let Cheato know that we were here?" Fawna asks.

"He'll be fine on his own, don't worry," Daughtte responds with confidence. "So, where ya from?"

"The Rime plains, that's what my mother used to call it. Up North." Fawna discloses. They start to talk about how they feel bad for Thadeus and how he looks sad and lonely and all he wants to do is provide good service to Alfield!

Meanwhile, Cheato bursts into the now incredibly busy and buzzing Feed & Mead with flare; again leaving the door rudely open behind him, "Muscles, Fawna we've got ..." He trails off after he realizes that they're not there. "Ta-Da!" he says as he prestidigitizes a little firework show as he backs out the door onto the street and heads to the only other place he can think of that they would go for food aside from the Ruddy Top Butcher's.

Cheato walks to the Candleglow Inn and makes a grand entrance into the establishment purple robes flapping and flying about only to see that the place was empty save for his partners. "Daughtte, why'd you come here?" he asks as Fawna notices he left the door open again and quietly closes it with a wiggle of her finger.

"The butcher recommended it," Daughtte replies.

Cheato fills them in on all he saw while at the stables, " ... he has the drugs," he whispers to his friends. "He's in on it!"

"No," Daughtte says in shock.

"Yes, I actually saw it with my own eyes. Well with his eyes," he says as again he shakes the ferret out of his sleeve and onto his lap.

"What, I'm dumbfounded!" Daughtte replies. "Hey, Thadeus, what do you know about the dragonborn down at the stables?"

"Oh, that's Durmas..." Thadeus tells them and fills them in on a little town lore. Apparently, both Durmas's and Crute's businesses had burned down in the gnoll attack a while back. It was slow for them to rebuild separately so they decided to pool their resources and do it together. They got a loan, made it up better than before, and it's been like that for 2 years now. "...But as I said, they've only started to steal my business about 2 months ago."

After Thadeus goes back to his duties Cheato turns to his friends, "Oh, that's why the Feed & Mead is packed right now. Let's drop some hints at the stable like we're looking for something."

Daughtte thoughts drift, 'Maybe if they all play a game of cards, Thaddeus would have some company for a bit since they've been the only customers he's had for a while it seems.' "Do you guys have any cards?"

Fawna pulls out her lyre clumsily with one hand as the other is continuously protecting the egg, "This is all I have, no cards."

Cheato, ignoring them both continues, "Shall we head to the stables?"

"Why did you want to play cards?" Fawna asks Daughtte, now ignoring Cheato."

"Kindness," Daughtte replies. "Once we leave, he'll be all alone."

They decide they don't really have time for cards or anything of that sort, so they thank him profusely and compliment his hospitality and give him enough gold to cover some of his lost business. He lets them know they're always welcome at the Candleglow.

They go back out in the afternoon sun deciding where to go and what to do next. Fawna thinks about what Cheato had said about the other inn being super busy right now by comparison and the oddness of the situation as a whole, "What if it's the barkeep? What if he's in on it too since they're business partners."

"He might be involved, But I don't think the drugs are staying there. This town doesn't need it, it's all farmers and townsfolk with the occasional traveling merchant caravans!"

"Cheato!" Daughtte exclaims with enthusiasm, "I want you to buy drugs!"

"So are we going to the stable or the Feed & Mead?" Fawna asks confused.

"Fawna, may I use your gold?" Cheato asks.

Fawna readily hands it over to him, "I don't really know how it works anyway."

"To the Feed & Mead," Cheato states. Daughtte and Fawna wait outside while Cheato goes in for the deal. With another grand entrance, Fawna closing the door from the outside for him, Cheato exuberantly shouts, "I've come back, to my favorite inn." He approaches Crute with a sideways grin. "So, about those h-h-horses, I kind of need them to help with my exam at the academy."

"Oh! Is that what you're on about!?! Guess the word is getting around," Crute replies with a wink and smile of his own. "So how much are you needing, because you could always just have a bite to eat ya' know."

"Uhh, like 8?" Cheato shrugs a bit confused about the offering of a meal, and jingles Fawna's pouch.

"Oh," Crute's eyes brighten as he leans in and whispers, "right because you need it for school... so at 8 doses we're looking at 640gp, they're 80gp a dose and I don't think you have enough for that. But the stew is delicious."

Cheato processes that new bit of information for a moment before responding quietly, "One dose should be just? fine."

"Tell you what, go on over to the stables and talk to Durmas, he'll be able to help you out with that over there, I do my part over here," Crute holds his arms out gesturing to the packed establishment.

Cheato thanks him and takes his leave to return to his friends outside, hurriedly herding them to a more secluded area, "He's in on it alright, so is Durmas."

"Here's what we should do," Daughtte huddles down and suggest they tell the guard what they know so far, attempt to buy horses, real ones, not the wink-wink ones. All Bryce has to do is be nearby within earshot as the deal goes down.

"If we talk to Bryce now they would see us," Cheato thinks for a moment before shaking out his sleeve sending little Mr. Mugwuggles the 17th tumbling out.

"Durmas hasn’t seen us before right?" Fawna asks looking at the cute little beast.

"No, he hasn’t seen any of us thankfully," Cheato reaches down and pats his ferret then pulls out paper and quill. "To solve this problem of us not being seen by Bryce, Mr. Mugwuggles will be our courier."

"So we’re fine if we’re trying to make sure the merchants aren't caught foappalledr doing the actual smuggling!" Fawna says, now feeling more confident in their plan and her partners. Put in the note that I’ll make him quieter so he can hear what’s happening, and to meet me outside the Butcher's; I'm sure you two can stall him until Bryce is in place."

With great skill and finesse, and an occasional flourish, Cheato confidently pens a letter to the Watchmaster and rolls it up. He squats down, handing it to Mr. Mugwuggles while telepathically giving him explicit instructions. They all watch him disappear as he scampers off.

After a bit, they set their plan in motion as Cheato and Daughtte head to the front entrance of On the Wind Stables to see Durmas about some horses. Fawna watches them go and then heads to the Butcher to nervously await the Watchmaster.

Cheato enters the stables first, followed closely by Daughtte and thank goodness this is a barn so no doors were rudely left open. "Hello, we're here to buy some h-horses," Cheato says with a wink and a nod as the black dragonborn, Durmas, turns to look at them...

Fawna wasn't waiting long before Bryce can be seen advancing toward her at a brisk pace. She quickly explains, "This can help you stay quiet," as she takes a leaf of mistletoe and a sprig of spruce, sets it aflame, and collects the ash which she sprinkles over his head mumbling something under her breath. "There. Ok, let's do this." They quietly move to the stables. Fawna enters and joins her new friends and Bryce silently moves into a position where he can hear the conversation within...

Durmas gives the group companions a quick once over and chuckles to himself and continues with a wry pointy smile, "Oh aye, Crute told me about you lot and your horses. I know why you're here. You can be straight with it, you want some of that Suude."

"Oh, of course," Cheato smiles charmingly, glad to see Fawna shuffle in, "Yes, I'll need just the one dose." He holds out the gold pouch.

"Yes, you magic users need a bit more than mere townsfolk. Stew just won't do anything but make you come back for more!" he laughs as he pulls a small vial with a brown crystalline powder within it.

As Durmas holds his other hand out for the gold a yell rings out from behind them, "Stop!" Everyone freezes, especially Durmas, as Bryce approaches confidently, pointing a small piece of iron at his target. "I can't believe it, Crute and Durmas with my own eyes and ears," Bryce shakes his head in disappointment before addressing the deputized undercover team. "Thank you so much, you've done this little town quite a large favor. Drugs in Alfield? Feeding it to them? I'm apalled! Could you please take him down to Salt Trench Jail, while I go and get his partner in crime?" He puts special runed manacles on the dragonborn's wrists as the party nods their heads in agreement. "I'll meet you there. Oh, and I'll take that," he holds his hand out expectantly for the evidence.

"Are you sure? I could take care of it for you, it's no problem at all," Cheato proposes With a bit of wishful thinking, before reading the Watchmaster's expression.

The successful sleuths take their charge down the road to the jailhouse. It is small and at the moment the cells are empty, but they happily hand the prisoner over to the guard on duty who places him in a cell a little confused as they let him know that Bryce will be coming to fill the other cell with Crute. "The Gentleman isn't going to like this," Durmas confesses to them and exasperatedly tells them that he and Crute had to do something to gain business and pay back the loan they took out to rebuild their businesses.

Watchmaster Bryce returns with Crute in tow, "We'll have to gather statements and figure out what to do with these two, but you had said in your letter that there were bandits in the woods that are connected with this? Would you be so kind as to take care of that? I know you've already done so much for us, we'd be ever grateful." He hands them each 50gp for their troubles thus far, "and I'll give you another 50 for the bandits."

Daughtte, Cheato, and Fawna all look at each other and respond in unison, "Sure!" as they head out the door to their task.

raucous

They decide to go to the merchant caravan and catch them as they're packing up to leave. The trio assure the caravan that with their help in sharing the truth, they were able to stop those in town that were involved, and warned them of the addictive stew that was being served to the unaware patrons of the Feed & Mead. Thankfully, they hadn't eaten there and share as much information as they can about the bandits that they had come across.

Happy they have helped the victimized merchants, they head northwest along the Amber Road. "So they attack at dusk, just out of sight of the town on the horizon," Daughtte thinks out loud.

"I think we should force them to attack us, let's just go camp in their woods," Cheato offers.

"Like go in the woods and cause a raucous?" Daughtte asks.

"Well if we walk through the road they can just choose to ignore us." Cheato presents.

"Or they might think it's the Crownsguard if we go camping in their woods," Daughtte says concerned; then concludes, "Only if you pretend to be high on the drugs."

"Why pretend?" Cheato asks with a suggestive smile.

"Cheato, no," Daughtte chastises with a sigh.

Daughtte thinks about that for a moment, "Maybe …"

"No, we don’t need it. I mean, I can stop at any time it’s not a problem; we just don't need it for this," says Cheato.

Fawna interjects with a suggestion in another direction, "Let's just camp and have your furry friend watch."

"Good idea," Cheato concurs as he shakes his sleeve and talks with his weasel.

"How far can you communicate with him?" Fawna asks curiously.

Cheato responds precisely, "100ft."

"You can talk to that?" Daughtte asks in disbelief

"I can talk with a lot of things, like rocks," Cheato says pointedly.

"I am related to rock giants," Daughtte offers.

"Exactly," Cheato teases.

"So if we do that, can’t we have it keep watch and scout?" Fawna asks, bringing them back to the task at hand.

"You can camp, I can hide in the tree..." Daughtte puts forward.

Cheato looks her up and down, "What tree is big enough?"

"Exactly they’ll never expect it!" Daughtte reasons.

"I’ll create some kind of distraction till something shows up, and when they do; we get 'em!"

Content with their plan they continue on a little further. They had actually traveled pretty far and the sun was sinking in the sky when Cheato and Daughtte spy a figure among the trees watching them. It is then that Cheato decides to forgo any semblance of a plan that they had had and points at the bandit releasing three glowing darts that easily surprise and pummel the target.

Fawna is caught completely off guard as she was sure her egg had moved in her arms a moment ago as chaos erupts around her and the injured bandit calls out to his cohorts in the shadows of the forest. Arrows and magic start flying through the air as the battle ensues on the side of the road. They fought valiantly, against the group of about 10 bandits, they were greatly outnumbered! Fawna protects herself, the egg, and Cheato obscuring them within a fog cloud, popping in and out as needed for their magical offensive strikes while Daughtte was letting her fists fly; confident enough she didn't even need her greatsword. "See, muscles," Cheato shouts to Fawna as he points over to Daughtte. With perseverance, teamwork, and of course Daughtte's muscles they disband the bandits from their lives and subdue and tie up the bandit captain to bring back to Alfield to go under questioning with Watchmaster Bryce. Cheato makes sure to collect all the valuable materials from the fallen bandits.

As night deepens, the exhausted trio enter the Jail with a prisoner for the second time that day. Bryce immediately thanks them and keeps his promise, rewarding them with 50 more gold coins each. The town of Alfield's residents and traveling merchants is saved from the corrupt innkeeper and stablemaster thanks to the watchful eye of their Watchmaster, and the efforts of three brave adventurers.


CREDITS:

Cheato DeRusso - Gavin Rook McAllister

Daughtte - Abby Quasar

Fawna - Wyncroft Aldritch

Dungeon Master - Heather Dougherty

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