When the pair of guards vaguely imply he might have murdered the two thugs, rather than having through good fortune survived their assault, Dev slumps momentarily. His youth bore innumerable examples of just such interactions with the guard in Drynna, even when he wasn’t breaking the law by filching food for his unsighted parents. The episode gives him the sensation of fingers of chill winter breeze blowing through the cracks in their little lakeside hovel and through his tattered blanket as, shivering, he tried to sleep. He buries his chin in his chest as he turns to rejoin Lokilia and their new companion-at-arms. 

When he sees Normont and Quinn though, his step lightens. That was then, this is now. He’s not alone against a heedless world, he is among friends.

“Normont! Quinn,” he smiles, then frowns shaking his head. “The plan… didn’t happen at all. Progo here really helped.

”Oh… go to Trinket’s Park? Okay, yeah. We need to tell you what happened. Did you have any luck?,” he continues as they walk. 

The teen tiefling throws concerned glances over his shoulder, certain they’re still being followed. 

Quinn looks Progo up and down and nods to him.

Lokilia nods when Normont mentioned going to Trinket Park. "One did get away. Turned invisible and ran," she relays. The half-elf doesn't say much more until they are able to all meet back at the park.  

"Yes well Progo is just a simple humble merchant, now that you all have reunited with your friends, Progo finds himself needing to address the issue of Progo's wares." Muttering to himself under his breath as he looks back toward his broken cart "Progo wishes he had a key to that lock he used." Turn back "Well a park seems like a good place for a semi permanent location for Progo's shop to be, until Progo can get the right parts to fix shops mobility." Perhaps if Progo could pick up one end of the cart to take the weight off the wheels... but moving the cart out of the way doing that wasn't as easy as to sounds and who knows how far this park is. "Perhaps you all know a good location to park cart? Progo still new to town, and have had more times defending cart then open for business here. Perhaps Progo can be of help you while shop... is recovering? Plus inventory is low at the moment."

Quinn looked at Progo apparently still assessing him even as he ran eyes over Dev and Lokilia, there was something at work behind his eyes but as always he was unlikely to reveal what.

He continued walking towards the park with the other four, " Progo, what is the total value of the cart and its contents?"

Normont reaches up and pats Dev on the back, "I do have news, yes".

On hearing that one got away, his concern heightens though, and he delays sharing what he learned at the castle for the time being.

"Progo, I hate to say it, but you will be in danger now. It would seem to me you have a few choices. To go about your business as if nothing happened, which would be a dangerous course of action. To go to the Pale Guard and ask for protection. I could help with making that happen. Flee the city, although it sounds like that would mean leaving your wares behind. Or you can stick with us for the time being. It sounds like you are handy in a scrape, and we could use allies, especially ones we know we can trust", he says to Progo. "If you have concerns about a wagon that is broken, I can certainly promise to help fix it once the threat is dealt with", he also offers.

As they get closer to Lord Trinket's Park, he makes sure there are no eavesdroppers around before continuing. "If it helps to know what we will be doing, I can share some of that now. We are looking for a missing person, someone taken by the people who attacked Dev and Lokilia, someone whose life is in imminent danger. I now know the identity of this person, and I have a starting point for a search, which as it happens will take us outside the city walls, which is timely", he says quietly, but loud enough for Dev, Lokilia and Progo to hear. "The missing person is a dwarf named Werhann Dike, and he went missing from the woods west of the city. There was also a body found in Lord Trinket's Park", he continues, looking closely at Progo before continuing. "Its brain was missing, which indicates our quarry might be responsible. As that is also to the west, and close to Galdric's Gate, I thought we could take a look at the park on our way out of the city".

He stops at the gate to the park, waiting to see what Progo, Dev and Lokilia will make of his plan, and if Progo will join them.

"Its brain was missing?" Lokilia says in surprise. But after a moment of thought she says, "Oh. Sure, we can check the park. And of course we'll looking for the missing dwarf!"   

"The cart is very sentimental to Progo, we have done alot of miles together. As far as wares, as Progo mentioned, Progo is a little light at the moment and wares worth only as much as someone is willing to pay. Progo would estimate say $150 gp all in all." Truthfully he would be lucky to make half of that but Progo figures it adds up quick and prices were negotiable. If the items he had were new, them he could have easily asked for quadruple that amount, but sadly most folk don't like chips taken out of edges or wraps on the wooden handle that may or may not be there for structural integrity. Plus he really did like that cart, that really was a great find a few weeks ago, hardly anything wrong with it, except that axle, which is repairable.

"Progo would never ask for you to repair what Progo can do, well once Progo can get some materials. The problem lies more in where Progo's cart sits until such time."

"Progo is nothing if not helpful and reliable, maybe not the best at finding missing people, Progo has never really tried that, more try to stay hidden from some. Either way, your cause seems noble" and possibly profitable, "and woukd be honored to assist in finding this missing dwarf." Progo is a bit alarmed about the whole missing brain information, but thought once the the man was dead, he had no use for the brain so he probably didn't miss it. "Progo isn't sure but Progo thinks once a brain is disconnected,  it doesn't have much use? Or able to be reconnected. Seems strange to remove that without a reason, and Progo doesn't know any reasonable reasons. The skull, sure, but brain,  no."

"My apologies", Normont replies to Progo. "I did not mean to suggest you couldn't fix the cart yourself. I would also be happy to supply the materials and a workshop for you to use. I fear to return to the scene of the attack right now would be asking for trouble though".

With regards the brain situation, he was expecting questions, even though he has no definitive answers.

"It is unclear what the missing brain might mean. There is a creature that we believe is behind the kidnapping and the group that attacked. It is called an Illithid, and from what we know they are both powerful and evil", he explains for Progo's benefit after the half-orc decides to stick with them.

"There was also a report some time ago of another creature that could be behind it. This one is more dog like. Either way, it cannot be a coincidence that there is a corpse without a brain at a time when we know an Illithid is at large", he continues speaking to all of his companions.

He suddenly looks up and smiles, as a little mechanical dragon swoops down to land on his shoulder.

"If we can find a spot out of sight, I can perhaps adjust my tools to pick up any magical residue. Or we can simply search the area outside the exterior gate, where the body was found", he suggests

Quote from VolcanoLair >>

Normont reaches up and pats Dev on the back, "I do have news, yes".

On hearing that one got away, his concern heightens though, and he delays sharing what he learned at the castle for the time being.

"Progo, I hate to say it, but you will be in danger now. It would seem to me you have a few choices. To go about your business as if nothing happened, which would be a dangerous course of action. To go to the Pale Guard and ask for protection. I could help with making that happen. Flee the city, although it sounds like that would mean leaving your wares behind. Or you can stick with us for the time being. It sounds like you are handy in a scrape, and we could use allies, especially ones we know we can trust", he says to Progo. "If you have concerns about a wagon that is broken, I can certainly promise to help fix it once the threat is dealt with", he also offers.

As they get closer to Lord Trinket's Park, he makes sure there are no eavesdroppers around before continuing. "If it helps to know what we will be doing, I can share some of that now. We are looking for a missing person, someone taken by the people who attacked Dev and Lokilia, someone whose life is in imminent danger. I now know the identity of this person, and I have a starting point for a search, which as it happens will take us outside the city walls, which is timely", he says quietly, but loud enough for Dev, Lokilia and Progo to hear. "The missing person is a dwarf named Werhann Dike, and he went missing from the woods west of the city. There was also a body found in Lord Trinket's Park", he continues, looking closely at Progo before continuing. "Its brain was missing, which indicates our quarry might be responsible. As that is also to the west, and close to Galdric's Gate, I thought we could take a look at the park on our way out of the city".

He stops at the gate to the park, waiting to see what Progo, Dev and Lokilia will make of his plan, and if Progo will join them.

When Normont tells the others that he knows exactly who the missing huntsman is, and where they likely are, Dev exhales fully, like he's been holding his breath for days. Finally, a solid clue. And not at Glinnick's store. The deep breath is following by a shudder as the teen tiefling things of the danger he and Lokilia had been on the point of placing themselves in to find out this information. And they would have found nothing! A near-disaster, averted.

"Normont," he says, relieved, "this is really good news."

Then the gnome continues, and when Normont mentions the missing brain and the ilithid, Dev squirms all over again, with a sour, ashen expression taking the place of relief.

"Oh boy, I was hoping... I just hoped the missing huntsman... er, huntsdwarf...? and the brain-eating scarymonster were not related.. Like, that we wouldn't have to come face-to-tentacle with the creepy mind eating creature." But nothing has ever come easy in the young tiefling's life, and still, here he was, with his friends, and a new companion too, and... and he always has his magic shoes if things get out of control. He shoots a glance down at them, as one dazzling red sequin shone in the morning light.

"Let's find him," Dev says, with confidence.