"Why don't we go back to the place where our stuff were stowed? Who knows, maybe the culprit left something there."

Meepo diligently plays his lute as he makes his suggestion.

"Aye, seems like a good idea t'me."

"Good, I'll be able to get my sword back, I hate walking around unarmed at the best of times and this is hardly that.."

"Agreed - Let's keep an eye out for any tracks or clues leading back out to the cache."

Aradurk Survival: 9

The location of the Bag of Holding is a good distance outside of Dark Arrows territory, and Juds is only convinced to allow you to travel so far with a large orcish escort. In total, 50 orcs accompany you to the buried bag, under orders from Juds, "They investigate for us, but you watch them carefully. You saw what they did with no weapons. They stay unarmed, or you kill them! And no magics!"

The orcs form a defensive perimeter around you when you reach the location. The site looks undisturbed since your last visit, and the disturbed earth where the bag is buried stands out from the surrounding wilderness.

Along the way, Aradurk carefully searches for tracks. There are no signs of any visitors since you buried your weapons here and walked toward Devilsfall.

Aradurk pulls the rest of the team together and speaks quietly, “This is absolutely not been disturbed since we left. Which means Roccar’s axe would still most likely be within. Which leads to me to wonder if we should investigate the body of Azetbu.”

Karst nods at what Aradurk says, thinking through the possibilities.

"So there are a few options, the axe was removed, magically, and the site left unspoiled or the axe is still there, and the axe we saw in Shang's hand, the one that killed Azetbu is a fake.  It wouldn't be too hard to use illusions to disguise another greataxe, and we can see they have no shortage of those."  Karst walks up to the orcs nearest to the buried area. "I know you have been told not to allow us to arm ourselves and I understand why, fifty of you is far too few to stand against us if we had our weapons, but we need to look inside the bag that is buried there.  One of us will remove the bag and empty it, we will look for the greataxe used to kill mighty Azetbu and we will return the other weapons and bury the bag once more.  If the axe is here then it is not the one which killed Azetbu and therefore there is no reason to blame Roccar for his death.  Do you understand what I mean, and will you allow me to uncover the bag?"

Meepo helps Karst's convincing argument with his imposing lute-playing.

The orcs scratch their heads while Karst explains, but nod and back up, allowing the group some room. The orcs place their hands on their weapons, ready for the first sign of trouble. Beneath the shoveled earth lies the bag of holding, which Karst pulls out of the hole and empties. 

Roccar's greataxe is nowhere to be found. Shockingly, neither is anything else. The bag of holding is empty.

Karst growls as he opens the bag, turning it upside-down and giving it a shake for the party as well as the orcs to see that it is empty. Placing it in his belt he turns to look around at each of the assembled group.  "It appears we have been played."

OOC Who exactly is with us and the fifty orcs, did Roccar and the others accompany us?  

"Oy!  That was me grandad's hammer!  I swear, if some goon jus' ran off wit' it . . ." 

Murmen's speech gradually trails off into muttered expletives.

"Fumbles" Aradurk says blankly.

"Fumbles was the one who brought the bag around to all of us before it was buried - we need to talk to him"

OOC: Only the fifty orcs are with you, the rest of your companions stayed at the campsite. Is that where we're headed?

The bag of holding has been added to Karst's inventory.

To the rest of the party: 

“In my estimation, we have hit a wall here. Thinking we should mosey back to camp and have a talk with Fumbles. Any other ideas?”

Walks quietly over to Juds:

”Anything come from your magics?”

“Aye.  I’ll be havin’ a talk with him he won’t forget.”

"If by have a talk you mean beat him to within an inch of his life, retrieve our weapons and then use them to execute him for trying to frame Roccar and disrupt the talks then yes we shall be having a talk with him."  Karst starts to move back towards the camp immediately.

OOC: Hold that question for Juds, he didn't accompany you, and is at his tent.

The procession returns you to your campsite, and the orcs disperse back to their posts. 

"Welcome back," Roccar greets you while cooking some meat over the fire. Nearby, Glendale is dictating something to Sal as she furiously scribbles the Warblade's words onto parchment, and Fumbles is lying down, flipping a coin through the air, looking quite bored.

"Roccar, I trust you are well." Karst nods and moves through the area until he is standing near Fumbles' head dropping down to one knee the paladin speaks quietly, but firmly in the gnome's ear. "We had an interesting trip to where you placed an empty bag of holding in the ground, all the time keeping our belongings for yourself, and then presumably trying to frame Roccar for the murder of Azetbu.  So, now that that is out in the open between us how would you like to proceed?"  Karst reaches down and places a hand on the Zhentarim's shoulder.  "Bear in mind if I think you are trying to cast a spell I will break your neck."

Intimidation 19

While Karst is busy intimidating the hell out of Fumbles, Meepo moves next to Sal silently and diligently watches her as the event happens.

Stealth 16

Aradurk watches over Glendale and Sal to gauge their reactions to Karst's discussion with the Gnome to look out anything unexpected.

"Karst - Let's be civil. I mean, there's no way Fumbles could have known our weapons were not in the bag, right?