Thistle matches Bireal's professionalism, at first, stopping a few feet away from her. "The guard should send a well equipped patrol to the Plague House, probably a priest, too, there are haunts, and a jelly cube monster we left barricaded, a tunnel being dug... all signs of a larger conspiracy at work here..." but she can't keep it up.

Her eyes soften, and her hand twitches, like she wants to reach out, but then her eyes flicker to where Jagrin Grath is, then back to the woman.

Bireal sees this twitch, eyes aware, missing nothing. She looks over her shoulder at her father, dealing with Yokini, then back at Thistle and gently shakes her head, making you aware that she is all business in front of her father. Her eyes communicate her longing for that touch, but her body language maintains the erect posture of a soldier, the tension of one who is in charge at the wall, who commands authority from her troops, and the look of someone still longing for her father's approval.

Jagrin, eyes still to the sky, locked on Yokini, calls out: "I know exactly who you are, and thats the only reason those archers havent already fired on you. Your fun nearly knocked me from my horse. Your fun is a distraction at the wall. Your fun....is over"

He looks towards Bireal, now in conversation with Thistle, and begins to ride his horse over at a slow trot.

 Thistle lowers her voice a little, so it is obvious she is saying this for Bireal alone. "Biri, we found a witness, a half-orc, not the murderer, but he knows him, and he's willing to talk. Zashier... did something to him, and he wants to talk. It was murder, Biri, Romero didn't kill himself. And there's signs of a new war, trolls and orcs in the north, working together..." She looks at Jagrin Grath again, approaching from behind Bireal.

She hurries on, making eye contact with Bireal. "It's not safe, Biri, we need to protect him until he can tell the full story. We think if we get him to the Sanctuary, we can keep him safe from any of his conspirators in Fallcrest, including the man who killed Romero, and from... anyone who might want to get revenge for Romero. We need your help... I need your help. This man, he's the only link we have to it all, Romero, the war, the conspiracy."

Bireal looks at you, then at Zashier and the hooded figure as they pass. Before her father gets there, she nods at you in understanding, then turns back to the wall and motions for the archers to relax and calls out to let you pass through. She then motions for her father to come over, distracting him from Zashier and the others heading towards the wall.

As Jagrin rides up, Bireal says "Father, this is Thistle. She and her companions have news, important news about Romero. He was murdered, father. They are still looking for the killer, but it was not suicide. His memory will not be disgraced. Now will you please stay within these walls? Will you please stay with me, so that we can remember Romero. I know you are upset with him about Brinya, but is this how you want to remember him? With this anger? He is dead, father. The time for forgiveness is now."

Jagrin looks at his daughter, and a single tear falls from his cheek. "You are right, my daughter. The time for anger is passed. Come, you and I shall reminisce about Romero, share our stories, and in a few hours we shall have a true funeral for Romero, and commend his spirit to the gods. Thank you, Thistle, for getting to the bottom of this. Please find my son's killer, and bring him to me. We will have justice for Romero's death." He turns his horse back to the gates, where the others have already passed through on their way to the Sanctuary, Bireal walking next to him. Thistle, I assume you follow a few steps behind, so as not to interfere between the father and daughter. As you pass through the gate, and its obvious Jagrin and Bireal are headed a different direction than you, Bireal turns back to you and says "You and the other others should join us for the funeral tonight. I know Zashier would like to say a few words...perhaps a few too many words, but thats Zash for you. It will be at dusk tonight, outside the sanctuary." She looks as if she wants to say more, but cant in front of her father. They continue along, leaving you just inside the gates of the city. The others are probably a bit ahead of you, headed towards the Sanctuary. 

27

The others make their way to the Sanctuary, and none of the townsfolk take notice of the hooded figure with the party.

OOC > Phew.

"Thank you, I know Zashier and the others would be grateful to be there." She will stand a moment longer watching them walk away, then turn to hurry after the others. She'll keep an eye on her surroundings though, aware that her entering with Bireal and Commander Grath might mark her, and not wanting to lead anyone to Daktani. When she spots the party, she will hang back, to watch for people who seem too interested in them. Perception: 22

Edit: Alas, she is preoccupied, apparently.

Yokini makes a few feeble "But" and "Uh" noises as Grath rides away from her. But she soon sees that Thistle and Bireal are going to do a good job of distracting him from paying much attention to Lem, Zashier and Daktani. She continues to hover in the air as her friends, Lem dutifully holding Gomol's reins, approach. As they catch up, she lowers onto the mule's back. "Well, that went ..." she says, her voice a bit downtrodden, "... splendidly!" she cheers. "That was my first taste of flying potion. While some of my being out of control was acting, some was not. That will take some getting used to." She looks over her shoulder at Thistle and the others. "Should we just meet her at the sanctuary?"

Lem looks at Yokini as she settles on Gomol. "That looked fun," he grins. "I get the visual and auditory stimulation from flying with Moon, but I miss on the kinetic and physiological and emotional experience of flying. She tells me it's grand. One day, I'll be as amazing as you, 'Ini. Do you want to race Moon to the Sanctuary?" He lets his familiar go off to fly with Yokini, should she choose, around the city or to the sanctuary. (The sensible thing would be to keep a low profile, but Lem's not always that wise.)

Mainly, though, Lem is looking for white graffiti, and keeping an eye out for Skreed. "Sure we shouldn't tell someone else in the guard to look for him?" he mutters to no one in particular. He's also ready to head right for Markelhay to warn of the invasion.

Zashier would give  Daktani a few comforting pats to the back once the group are at least out of immediate discovery by Jagrin. That much at least Zashier felt confident of, but the whole rigormarole between distraction force versues the guard largely went over his head, as he had been too preoccupied not thinking guilty thoughts and trying to keep the operation smooth.

"Ehh... well... Unless you have a few folks that you'd trust with your life among the guard, probably not? Because as I said before, Salazar would be asleep at this time, and I kind of like my trunk to remain untied." Zashier gives another shudder, alluding to some other incident with another. "That said, I get your concern, my rather dwarfy friend. Hmm... is anyone particularly good artist? And secondly, do we have paper? And thirdly, yes to going to the Sanctuary, or so is my vote as well, as much as it matters."

Yokini looks as if she's about to take Lem up on his dare, but as Zashier begins speaking, the gnome appears to think better of it. She settles in and listens to him speak.

Lem narrows his eyes at the word "dwarfy" but otherwise listens to Zashier patiently. "Are we assuming that... our quarry... has moles all over the guard? Scrub and Toggle are trustworthy. Lt. Plank of course. It can happen once we get to sanctuary but it needs to happen quickly. Probably even before warning Markelhay."

(OOC: Can we split up and accomplish all of this quickly? Or is that too annoying? I couldn't quite figure out from the map where everything is other than Moonstone Keep.)

any questions I can answer about the map? Do you all have the link from Discord to see the Campaign Journal docs?

I can see the map but I don't recall where the Sactuary is. I don't want to hold anything up so maybe we all just rush to Sanctuary and then Lem and someone else could rush out to the Keep to tell Markelhay, looking for graffiti and Skreed all the while. Lem has a bit of a sense of urgency about this, not knowing what the white paint does, why it's where it is, what Skreed's planning, where Skreed is, and how soon the invasion's planned. He does not want to get pulled back into a war again. 

Maybe Yokini could ride around town on Gomol making notes about where all the white paint is and what is painted.

Zashier takes an extraordinarily long time to answer, which may be say something of the elephantine man. In that time he had a 1,000 yard stare upon refocusing back on the road. ".... I probably shouldn't be saying this, what with the whole war over the horizon 'n all. But uh, well, with man power being a bit on the low side, what with the whole previous one and Fall Crest being a bit too closer to certain borders 'n all, new recruits would be quite a boon."

"And considering the one we seek has already demonstrated not only bit of resourcefulness, much to our chagrin, or so the word goes. So, it would not necessarily be difficult to at least have one; especially if that magic of his can be extended to their fellows. Could even be that one of them are like me. Only instead of being twisted nearly into something that would've probably done a lot of bad things, they were like... turned human, or somethin. At least temporarily, assuming none of that fancy, uh, illusorarery magic wasn't involved 'n all." He explained.

"Could be about time of a bit of screening, though inadvertantly, that may tip off a few things I think. Once everything else is set in place 'n all. Could be that you may want to get in contact with the two you mention, assuming they have that fancy magic like yours too. Once we're back at the Sanctuary of course too, unless you have some fancy means of, uh, seeing about the good chatter from far away."

“Daktani, has Skreed recruited anyone?” Lem asks, still adamant in his own head that Plank and the others would never turn, but doesn’t want another argument with Zashier. He keeps walking to the Sanctuary and once there, volunteers to go warn Markelhay or seek out Plank.

Any sign of graffiti?

Sorry for the delay. Things came up at work and home, and I have not had any time for anything extra. That being said, if you dont mind, I will push the story along a bit to make up some lost time. 

The party makes their way to the sanctuary, and Thistle is not far behind. Her mind wanders to her interactions with Bireal, and the events of the day, and she is unable to keep her wits about her in the city, but it doesn’t seem to matter as no one pays her any mind as she moves to catch up to her friends. I assume you let them know about the ceremony later that evening for Romero. 

Yokini offers to move around the city, on Gomol, to see if she can find any of the graffiti. Over the next few hours, you find several instances of the white paint, but no half orcs near any of the locations. They look like big Xs or maybe crossed swords. Yokini makes her way back to the Sanctuary after going around town, and I assume updates the party on the locations of the graffiti. 

Daktani answers Lem that Skreed brought several half orcs with him when he came, and that there might have been a few more recruits, though he tried to keep them separate. He is pretty sure the new apprentice at Clamor was recruited. Urnsul was her name, and if you recall, she disappeared about the time the new hopeknife was being worked on. 

You arrive at the Sanctuary, and Tyari Varvatos, High Priestess, greets you at the door. Assuming you trust her, she offers to help you in any way she can. She will keep Daktani at the Sanctuary and protect him while you go and update any others that need to be updated.

It is about the middle of the afternoon. Maybe just a few hours of good daylight left, and then the ceremony for Romero will begin outside the Sanctuary. Yokini is using that time to look for the graffiti around town. She will meet back up with the party at the Sanctuary in time for the ceremony. What are the other three doing with this last bit of time before the funeral service?

Lem would still push to go quickly to warn Markelhay of the incoming invasion, asking Zashier or Thistle or Yokini to come with since he's not so great with the talking to people. 

Zashier, being of at least the same faith as the priestess, is yet initially leery of the High Priestess being let in on the secret, surprisingly enough. Though this is only for a moment, and with the realization they would need her help anyhow, held his tongue on any initial concerns and lets her in if someone hadn't beat him to the punch there. Even so, and with the matter of the Ceremony yet on his mind, Zashier is reluctant to leave the Sanctuary any time soon.

But between Lem's ongoing insistence and another concern coming to mind, again the Elephantine relented with some hesitance and confusion. Unless Lem is of course is frank about his limitations with talking to people, as the thought hardly comes to Zashier's mind with so many other things already occupying it. Before they depart, he turned meaning to ask for his sister to remain at the Sanctuary, only to likely by a "Way ahead of you Brother" or a need for her to make sure word reached their mother about it in time. Either which way, Zashier does not depart without giving her one last big hug (try to, anyways), and a final lengthy look prior to parting ways.

Thistle is grateful to Tyari, but not too keen on leaving Daktani alone in her care. She takes the time, maybe half an hour, to have him explain to the Priestess all he knows, so at least another city elder is informed. "I agree with Lem, Lord Markelhay needs to be informed, but could he not be summoned here? Does the Sanctuary not have the status to request his presence for something important? I don't see how we, even the Heroes of Fallcrest, could compel the Lord of the city to attend at a moment's notice. It's just not how it is done among nobles."

She's really not keen on leaving the Sanctuary, and if the others insist on going, or Tyari thinks it best someone from the party go, she wants to stay behind with Yashiera to protect Daktani.

Lem nods at Thistle, and asks Tyari, "would he come?"

"Here's another one," Yokini says to Gomol as they approach another instance of the white graffiti. She makes another mental note, planning to mark all of the locations on a map later to see if there is some kind of pattern. Just for fun, she uses her dagger to scrape a little of the pain and then tastes it.

Vanilla d20 roll to identify the substance: 4 (add whatever modifier you feel best fits)

Lem wants to run go warn Markelhay, but before he can leave, Thistle has Daktani explain everything to Tyari so that another town official can be in on what is happening. When Thistle goes on about “Its just not how its done among nobles”, Yashiera gives her an odd look, as if to say “What do you know about how things are done among nobles?” She is a bit puzzled by the remark, but lets the moment pass.

Yashiera gives Zashier a quick hug, and runs home to inform their mother of what has transpired, and of the ceremony. She was also familiar with Romero and the family, since he was there at the farm with Zashier often enough. Yashiera assures Zashier she and mom will find him later at the ceremony.

When asked if Lord Markelhay would come to the temple at the behest of the heroes of Fallcrest, Tyari says "He might come. He is dealing with other matters, but if you wait, he may come." Though she gives you no indication as to when he may come. She summons one of the young monks in training in the temple, and sends word to Lord Markelhay. Not too many details, so as not to give away too much of your secret.

You wait, and an hour goes by. ...

Yokini is riding around town, looking for graffiti and finds several. There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to where they are or what they are marking. She decides to taste it. (With a roll like that) It tastes bad…

You only have about another hour of good daylight left, before the ceremony starts at dusk...

Those at the temple, do you continue waiting? Yokini, do you head back for the ceremony?

Lem would want to go to the keep, getting agitated that the town is not yet prepared for war. He'd head there himself after a very short time of waiting. 

"There might be an army preparing to invade quickly, and even if not, there is a plot in the town. We should also be hunting down Skreed before he can finish whatever he's trying to start. Is no one else concerned about this?"