"Okay..." Emma says a bit dejected. She sniffles. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, dear," Juniper says, putting her hands onto Emma's shoulders. Emma stops crying.

With a nod, "I'll bring her back."

The two go off to the Smithy and later only Juniper comes back. "She's safe. She snuck out apparently. Her parents didn't even know she was gone." The rains still haven't calmed down and you all feel soaking wet to the bone.

((I guess if you'd like and if you're finished investigated then you can all take a long rest. Sadly Tendilius and Ka-Cha's cottage is burnt so unless you don't mind staying there you can bunk with whoever))

[They can have my hut, I'm perched on top lol]

Heiboros invites Ka-Cha and Tendilius to take his hut, flying up an perching on top, he folds a head under his wing and goes to sleep. The magic coursing through his veins begins its work as he rests, healing him surprisingly quickly. His charred feathers drop, replaced by fresh ones, the feathers on his head sprouting. By the time he wakes in the morning, he looks fresh and new, the cuts and scabs and burns from the battle are l all but gone. The magic had another effect too. He feels more powerful upon awakening. Power is within him. Power fueled by the delirium he carries. 

"Sounds like a plan." says Tendilius to Heiboros' offer. "What do you say, Ka-Cha?" He grabs his stuff and schleps it over to the new hut.

[When we finish the long rest, Heiboros has a spell scroll of chill touch, courtesy of the mageborn background. He will give it to Tendilius, warning him that it will crumble to dust in 24 hours.]

"That sounds good, thank you." Ka-Cha replies.

Heiboros and Juniper's hut smells flowery and very much unburnt compared to yours. It's fully furnished just the same, though this one is more filled with dried plants and other types of herbs. Why? Guess the Ainbergs just like it that way.

Anyways the wind howls just right outside. Despite the torrential soaking, Heiboros manages to stay fully upright the entire night, his talons providing him enough grip to withstand the blast. Then comes morning, an entirely different day than it was before. It's sticky alright. Humid but not so bad. The sun shines brightly in its corner. It feels almost refreshing. You all do feel it. You feel more vibrant than the day before, more energized. Like you can take on the world! ... or maybe just Drakkenheim. Yes! Yes, definitely, feeling it in your bones-

"Open up!" A hard knock awakens all of you. 

"Even you too up there!" the voice calls.

Two pairs of strangers in uniforms, all of which consists of a forest green cloak with yellow trim (the traditional colors associated with the Drakkenheim coat-of-arms), stand outside your huts. One is outside knocking on the burnt one, but of course, you'd expect no answer. Another two are inspecting the broken-down caravan.

"I don't know! I swore I didn't put it here yesterday," a man with an eyepatch can be heard saying. Some (Tendilius and Hadrian) might recognize him as Mr. Fairweather. His gray hairs show he's seen enough in his day. "This is unbelievable! You're supposed to be out guarding. Always bugging us and the rest of the merchants and this is what you let happen?! Absolutely ****ing imbeciles.." The guard standing taking notes looks no more shocked than disappointed.

The one outside Heiboros and Juniper's hut looks to be no older than a teenager. He's got long black hair and a short neat beard, angular jaw, and rugged features. His armor of the Hooded Lanterns prominently displays a captain’s insignia on his shoulder. "Can you tell me what happened here?" he announces with perfect bravado. 

((You all get a long rest!))

Heiboros flaps down from the roof. His feathers are wet, but kept the water from his skin. He lands behind the men knocking on the door. "I can answer your questions - but none of my comrades are at fault. In fact, I'm also sure that... Mr. Fairweather here, is telling the truth." His last sentence is spoken with disdain, "You all know what the delirium can do." His facial expression is not hostile, but not friendly. He is all too aware of the hooded lanterns' desire to keep the delirium for themselves, when obviously the mages who understand it and know of it should have total access, instead of these simple warriors who locked it in boxes and hoped nothing bad happened. 

Tendilius backs up Heiboros. "Well, Asnom," he recalls Emma talking about him and his sister Petra the other day, "last night a nasty little fire elemental came through. Fortunately we were here and able to put an end to it before anyone got hurt-" he eyes the healing burn marks of the party from the night, "-badly."

He then tries to turn the tables on the teenager, "And pray tell what were you doing last night that made you feel it was your duty to wake us from our much-needed slumber?"

The captain waits patiently for Heiboros to come down and is surprised when the aarakora instead shows up behind him. "Huh," he mouths before turning around.

Every time you end your sentence, he tries to interject. After 'questions,' he responds "Okay." After 'at fault,' he adds in "Never said you were." Then at 'truth,' he says "that's what-."

He gets cut off by the delerium bit. His mouth turns into a thin flat line.

"Yes, that's why we are doing this investigation. Mr. Orson Fairweather here," he gestures towards the man, "says he is missing a couple of his wares here and says someone has tampered with his locks." He sneers a bit. "Magical locks, in fact." He seems to be eyeing Heiboros's clothing. "The Academy has already been notified and informed us that they weren't involved." He takes to that a bit mockingly. "This is not about you, but we're going to have to look at all the adventurers in this town." He looks up and down the huts, "However, you were the ones closest to the er... fire. We interviewed some of the early risers and they pointed to you fighting it..."

He waits for Tendilius to talk a bit but his eyes widen at the unexpected name-dropping. He brushes off the hair that covered his nameplate, which also states his name right there, and then shrugs it off. "Well, I-" He closes his mouth once again.

"Fire elemental," he repeats, writing it down. This seems to really get his attention as frown lines spread across his forehead. He raises an eyebrow at Tendilius about to ask 'tell me more' until it got into an accusatory tone and he drops that smile. 

"I am sorry that you and your comrades had been injured. Truly, us at the Hooded Laterns and the town is grateful for that," he nods, "and we are tremendously glad to see that that no one was seriously hurt. That is one of your main concerns as the town's watch-force and we can't thank you enough for it." He chews on his words for a minute. "So, thank you. I'm glad you six had it under control. If you need any direct attention for your wounds-" He gestures towards the Watch Tower, "we have emergency equipment over there."

Ansom taps his foot on the ground. The now dried mud floor seems to have washed away most of the evidence of the fire and the lightning strike. Mr. Fairweather is still talking with the guards who are also redirecting nearby gawking passerbyers. 

"I am sorry for awaking you from your slumber," he says that last part nearly dripping with disdain, "What we were doing last night is truly none of your concern. We had to board up most of the windows around town and at our base to shut out the impending rain. Then we had the ratling invasion-" He narrows his eyes and cuts himself off there. 

"Thank you for your time," he looks as if he were about to leave but turns back, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the three missing delerium now would you?"

Heiboros shakes his head. "The fire elemental we fought had a strange phenomenon. Its heart seemed to be made of a strange delirium crystal. If there's delirium missing, it's likely that it went there, to create the beast. I didn't tamper with the locks, but I did look at them after the fire. It seems he put a glyph of warding on the lock with some sort of explosion or fire in it. This mixed with the delirium in the chest was a bad idea, and caused both the mundane and the magical fires." (Deception: 20)

Ansom's Insight check: 16

Quote from SunDial365 >>

Ansom's Insight check: 10

The teenager scrutinizes you really heavily then sighs, "I guess.... that makes sense?" He looks up at the sky and bites his lip. "Guess that... that does settles then." He turns over to Fairweather and clears the way, surprising the other guard. "You used a glyph of warding now did you?"

"Yes," Orson squints, "Why do you ask?"

Ansom points over to you, "The magic one tells me that your warding sends an explosion if touched, is that not correct?"

Orson sees where this is getting at and his mouth curls up so you can see his gold-teethed grimace, "That is true. Bought them from the 'cademy years ago."

"So is it not possible that your magical lock caused this fire and was not intentional? That your delerium, as you know the dangers, sir, could have formed a living being much like the ones within the walls? We did get reports of the fire having a solid substance inside of it and their just story confirms it."

"Is that so?"

"I'm just saying the lightning from the storm may have sent a strike big enough to-"

The old weathered down man stands up straighter and pushes his index finger upon the captain's chest. "Tell me, does lightning open boxes? I didn't put my wagon out here either. Someone had to drag it out- and I put it all the way out by Hendrix's too- and bring it back here in the blink of an eye," Fairweather snaps his fingers, "It's got to be one of them magic folks, and I'm looking at one of them." Ansom turns around to look only to turn back when he hears a growl.

"I don't care what you and your big daddy honcho thinks accusing me, always butting up his business against mine, but this now just hits the salty rock bottom, doesn't it? You think I set this up? You think I put my stuff here, hauled my ass out to go get you (when you're whining on all about it with your sister), and hide my merchandise for a funsies? Is that what you think, kid?"

Ansom stiffens. "Listen, I didn't say that I was accusing you-"

"Yeah, but you weren't listening to me," he whistles, "You there!" He stomps up to you. "What ya say you saw happened to my caravan? All two chests locked up last night, batten down for the storm, and now," he snaps his fingers again, "it's back here, broken, and a magic fire started. Now tell me about that, please," He folds his arms across his chest, "I want to hear it."

Heiboros's eyes narrow to slits. His proud eagle face is bent into an extremely angry expression, with a powerful frown on his beak. When he speaks, it's in a surprisingly soft voice that carries a powerful tone that could make the strongest man tremble. "Back away. We will be civil, won't we?" Intimidation: 22

Orson Fairtweather huffs, "Alright. We will then. Sailor's word."

"I'll ask this again nicely: Did you see how my caravan got here last night?" he raises an eyebrow, almost as if impressed, "How did you kill that fire?"

"Unfortunately we didn't see how your caravan arrived." says Tendilius to Fairweather. He smiles for the next part, "As for how we beat it? Well nothing a good bit of fighting couldn't help."

He thinks about Emma and possibly asking her if she saw how it came or if she just awoke to the fire later on.

Turning to Ansom he approaches the lad, "Ansom. You talked about fighting ratlings last night." He speaks directly, no underlying insults or derisiveness to his tone, but still holding his ground. "A missing caravan. Getting your lads tied up elsewhere. I can't think that's a mere coincidence. Perhaps any info you'd have might tie into something we noticed."

Persuasion: 19+7= 26

As Orson Fairweather huffs and folds his arms, Hadrian steps forward, boots squelching against the wet ground. "Look, Fairweather, I understand you're upset about your caravan, and rightly so. But let's be clear about what happened here last night." His eyes lock onto the other man's, "Your cart, for reasons unknown to us, ended up near our building. Your delirium—dangerous stuff, as you well know—somehow got loose and turned into that fiery elemental we had to fight off. That thing nearly burned down the house, and it damn near killed us."

"My companions got badly hurt dealing with something that never should have been our problem. We put down the fire elemental before it could cause more damage. Now, I’m not saying you did this on purpose, but the fact is, your property caused this mess, and it’s only fair that you compensate us for the injuries and risk we endured. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you make this right. We’ll consider it payment for services rendered—after all, without us, you’d have a lot more to worry about than just a few broken chests. We could have walked away, but we didn’t. And that’s worth something, wouldn’t you say?" 

Quote from SunDial365 >>

Orson Fairtweather huffs, "Alright. We will then. Sailor's word."

"I'll ask this again nicely: Did you see how my caravan got here last night?" he raises an eyebrow, almost as if impressed, "How did you kill that fire?"

 "Fire starts, we get awoken. We all slam deep into it with everything we have. I try and stay back with my spells, but it has range too, it hurts us all pretty bad. My friend Ka-Cha finishes it off with a punch, something none of us expected. The rain gets rid of the nonmagical flames, and we go back to sleep. A few hours later, these... watchmen... wake us up. You saw the rest."

Quote from WhiteByakko >>

As Orson Fairweather huffs and folds his arms, Hadrian steps forward, boots squelching against the wet ground. "Look, Fairweather, I understand you're upset about your caravan, and rightly so. But let's be clear about what happened here last night." His eyes lock onto the other man's, "Your cart, for reasons unknown to us, ended up near our building. Your delirium—dangerous stuff, as you well know—somehow got loose and turned into that fiery elemental we had to fight off. That thing nearly burned down the house, and it damn near killed us."

"My companions got badly hurt dealing with something that never should have been our problem. We put down the fire elemental before it could cause more damage. Now, I’m not saying you did this on purpose, but the fact is, your property caused this mess, and it’s only fair that you compensate us for the injuries and risk we endured. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you make this right. We’ll consider it payment for services rendered—after all, without us, you’d have a lot more to worry about than just a few broken chests. We could have walked away, but we didn’t. And that’s worth something, wouldn’t you say?" 

 "I agree, in a way. Though I doubt you did this on purpose, we did protect your other chest, though perhaps Ansom should be the one to pay us out, as without us, that fire would have ravaged emberwood village." He looks thoughtful and says, "I wonder... what if this is a warning. Someone wants us to stay out of drakkenheim, so they drag Mr. Fairweather's wagon over here, blow up the delirium, and boom, we see what it can do and it could have killed us."

Ka-Cha notes the others haven't mentioned Emma though she was in position to see the Fire Elemental and even warned us.  He doesn't know why, but respects the desire.  He'll not mention her either.

"We awakened to fire.  We fought it.  It was resisstant to weapons.  We fought it anyway..  When I realized it was resistant to weapons. I countered with "Flurry of Blows" and punched it.  That wealkened it enough that a bucket of  water destroyed it."