Road to Phandalin

(I think Dain is back at the inn, unless he is here as well.  Let me know if that is the case.)

Perception 14 Any smells or anything familiar here as compared with Gristas room

Medicine 14 to determine after viewing the body how long dead

She thinks it couldn't be Reel'yn he would of used his spell to clean the garments, course....

"I guess we could meet with Ratkins, how do we find him again?"

she cast message to Otrov

"Don't reply to me, tell me later Do you notice any familiar smells or anything?"

Otrov gasps slightly, bit keeps her cool - just a wink at Margret.  Perception for familiar smells or anything remembered from Grista’s place:   16

Otrov might also go outside to check with her street urchin gang to see what’s the haps around town, including anything weird happening around the inn or with Grista.  

Neither of you gets any familiar smell here. You don‘t notice anything odd.

As for the body, you remeber it was swollen and looked like it was down there for several days. Unfortunately, you lack the expertise to be any more precise. 

„I assume he is at my place, planing with Ree‘lyn the trip to the mine. The dragon and the orc raids make it kind of dangerous to travel there.“

“May i ask you a question? What are your plans for the next month or two?“

"Why don't we go to the Stonehill and Talk it over some tea or coffee? And whatever they have to eat. I'll buy"

She says with a reassuring smile 

„I‘ll take you up on your offer, but i am running a business here and can not just close in the middle of the day. How about tonight after i close shop? I can bring Mr Ratkins as well if you want to talk buisness.“

Margret shakes her head she was never good at deception or persuasion 

"For your protection, I suggest you close your doors and come with us to the Stonehill.

This morning, while we were looking for our bards killer, who was murdered this morning. We found Grista dead, stuffed in the outhouse! Behind her Inn."

Otrov studies Hallia’s face to see if the news gets any weird reactions from her: Insight - 3

Hallia stops for a moment to put all the information together she just heard. „The Bard, the one who together with your friends (she indicates at Dain and Otrov)  was was warning Dazlyn and Norbus about the Orc raids? And Grista? They don‘t have anything in common, why would someone kill both of them in one night...“

Otrov, she seams concerned and tries to make sense of the situation.

"I don't know, We have evidence that Grista was not murdered on the same night but earlier this month. She was alone, Relgalyn was alone, a target of opportunity. You just gave me confirmation that someone was posing as Grista. That's why I suggested you to go to the Stonehill Inn."

„Several people were talking with Grista the last few days, myself included. I don‘t think an ordinary illusion would have fooled that many people“, she pauses for a moment :“you said earlier this month, the Redbrands would have never bothered if she changed, as long as they got their drinks, so the switch could have happened before. So either someone kidnaped her and interrogated her to pose as her while the thugs didn‘t care or it happened after the redbrands, but then whoever did it must be useing some mind reading to impersonate here. That would be way more dangerus, cause they could change and impersonate anyone very quickly.“ she thinks a bit more:“ I think i will be fine during the day, it would be to big of a risk for an assassin to strike when any moment someone else may walk in. But i will make sure to pass on the warning and to stay in groups, especially in the night.“ 

The logic of Margret's argument hits Otrov like a donkey kick.  Hallia must have met with the imposter since real-Grista would have been occupying space in a disgusting poop pile.  Otrov feels a cold shiver run up her spine thinking about it - she remembered hearing about such creatures from her parents, but always thought they were just trying to get her to eat her vegetables.    ( DM - Do I know or recall anything about creatures or beasts that can take over another's body or thoughts?  Use whichever is more relevant:  History - 20. Arcana - 14. )

Otrov slowly moves off to the side in the room, her eyes never leaving contact with Hallia.  Just for fun, Otrov tries calling Hallia a really, super-duper offensive name mentally to see if she can hear it.  

"Do you have anything you wrote yesterday? We can look at."

Margret says on a whim

Otrov, you know that magic can do a lot of crazy stuff, but you don‘t remember any details. As for stories, you heard about dopplegaengers, a creature that can imitate humanoids nearly perfectly. Mindflayers who can invade other creatures minds and make them into slaves and you heard new stories about a new race called shifters, who are like dopplegaengers, but they are not.

“I do have the records for who is claiming what parts of the mountains for mining and the books i keep for my trades and inventory as well as personal and buisness  corespondence. But none of those i would share with people i only know for maybe an hour, no matter how grateful i am to them. I hop you can understand that. I have to keep my clients privat information privat after all.

"Makes sense." Dain speaks up, having been standing back as the others spoke with the leader of the miner's exchange.  "Have you noticed anyone else acting weird, or being somewhere they shouldn't be, of late."

„No nothing, like i said, I never suspected anything wrong with Grista and now you tell me she was an imposter for a week or longer. People are a bit jumpy because of the dragon flying around, but so for the beast only attacks easy prey and stays away from the village.“

"Do you have anyone here? I don't like the Idea of leaving you alone since you seen it"

She looks to see if Halia has a waste basket

Short answer is that you do not see a waste bin. Paper is to valuable to scrible quick notes down and then just throw it away.  Most people will only write down important stuff and use as much of a page as posible. And since only important thinks get writen down, those pages are burned more often then thrown away, especialy since there is no waste colection. 

"Do you have anyone here? I don't like the Idea of leaving you alone since you seen it"

"And could you give me a list of those people that saw impostor Grista?"

Otrov chews at her lip, thinking Hallia is telling the truth.  "Maybe we visit this Mr. Ratkins?  See if he has any, more enlightening, views.  Maybe we'll even see UnGrista!  I suppose we should even let Sildar know, unless we think he might be in on it as well," Otrov says to the rest of the group.