((Mindartis intends to bring all the sugar loafs? (I think that's what they were called) out of the house and back to the material plane before going about taking everything that looks like it could be used to turn people to sugar cubes and yeet throw it down the cliff.))

Elwin's eyes darkened a bit at Del's suggestion to burn the place down. "Personally, I'd rather confront the trash that's responsible for this!" Catching himself, he shook his head. "I know destroying the house is faster, but if we don't stop this 'auntie,' who's to say she won't just rebuild her place and continue the abductions from elsewhere? And more cautiously, this time?"

“She probably already has since I don’t count all the missing kids. Let’s destroy one base of operations. Actually though....I’ll stay here and try to get a start on what these cubes are and how to get people safely out.” Quentin says after taking a moment to rethink 

"Then let her come to us," Mindartis says. "Let's make such a mess of the place that this 'auntie' will have no choice but to hunt us down."

Answering E: I was just trying to escape, though no doing of my own Barleyman ended up over the cliff. Pure luck. I get what you 're saying, but I assume 'auntie' is out of our league, and with this barley-a-hole out we have a win. All the kids were worried about Candyman and he's gone

Raven will continue to help carry things from the house as long as their are sugar loafs to carry.  When they start to destroy and toss things over the cliff she would stay in the alley with the others.

"We best see about getting these kids somewhere they can be helped." Raven says as they stand in the alley.  "Should we take them to a temple or just to the guards?" 

While the others are bringing back the sugar and such Quentin will start to cast Detect Magic and Identify on the cubes in an effort to better understand exactly what happened to them.

Mindartis, Elwin and Raven carry back 400 pounds of crates fulled with rock-hard cones of sugar, then Mindartis returns to commit barbaric mayhem, throwing ingredients and cakes down into the gorge below, then kicking over the stove to scatter hot coals on the stale gingerbread floor.  He leaves as it starts to smolder, and returns to the rock column to watch as grey flames consume the gingerbread shack, filling the canyon with smoke and the scent of burned cookies.

Quentin casts Identify on the Tabaxi's cube and confirms suspicions that it is made of solid crystal sugar, getting a brief flash of a vision of the child lying, motionless and unresisting, on the marble kitchen counter as Barleyman sprayed her with something that came out of its hands.

Casting Detect Magic, there is no magic on the sugar shells, but there is a fierce glow coming from each of the creatures sealed inside...some sort of very powerful transmutation magic.

Eventually, Henry comes flying back followed by the giant owl form of the police lieutenant and a bunch of the uniformed sprites.  Lieutenant Hooleran returns to her elf form, looking like she's had a very, very long night. She stares, dumbfounded, at the sugar-encased victims, and with almost equal amazement at the cases of sugar loaves.

"All right," she says. "I need answers, and I need them NOW."

Mindartis looks to Del, "Do you want to start?"

Clearing his throat and clearly having some sort of beef with the female police elf Quentin begins to explain, “It is elementary my dear girl. It was so simple that a mere child could figure it out.” Quentin puts emphasis on the word child. “In fact many of the street urchin kids already knew it was the Candyman, though Barleyman seems to be a more accurate descriptor. Taking advantage of the children’s and pixies need for sweets an entity home to another plane of existence was kidnapping them with promises of sweets. Taken advantage of the broken seals between the planes of existence he would travel back and forth in an instant. There he would offer them same cake or tea that would immobilize them, some strong transmutation magic is probably imbedded within those refreshments. Following that he would encase them in this solid crystal sugar. Which is why he had so much though we don’t know exactly what being in a different plane did to the sugar so I’d find out before eating it. Also, the Barleyman was more than likely just a henchman for someone bigger. My friend Del has more in depth details about what the Barleyman looked like and what he would do”

 "Uh-huh," she says, giving Quentin a skeptical look. "You're a cute kid, but cop an attitude with me and you'll spend a week in the can with Stinky Shozz, the drunken lizardfolk mime. He'll spend all day every day pretending there's an invisible wall between your half of the cell and his, and neither of us wants that."

"I'm going to need official statements from all of you."

You hear the running feet of the foot patrol catching up.

Galanodel Tosh, at your service ma'am. The Barleyman looked like this Del casts Silent Image ((DM, can you paste the pic please?)) and acted not fully alive, like a construct maybe? No emotion, anyway. I let myself get captured, posing as a homeless teenager, was brought to the Shadowfell, lured by the promise of food and shelter and company. The cakes and tea he served were poisoned - I have samples for the right investigators. Lesser Restoration was enough to stop the poisoning action caught early anyway. I don't know if it is in the sugar or just the final products, so those cones need to be tested too. 

I found the victims in this condition indicating the cubes I grabbed one pixie and fled to rejoin my friends. I was sprayed by something that slowed be down, but got incredibly lucky: when Barleyman leapt at me he fell over the edge of the cliff. We all went back to retrieve the victims, meeting no other creatures. Once they were safe, a few went back to destroy the means of committing further crimes.

While I was in captivity, Barleyman kept mentioning his "auntie" which I took to be the one in charge, but we were just cautious enough - and focused on the rescue - not to investigate further.

Del will keep the image up until enough authorities have seen it, and clarify what he needs to, but soon he'll just sit on the ground, adrenaline spent, mumbling I need to sleep

"Mam."  Raven says with a bow to the guard captain.  "The Tabaxi there is a friend of Huark's, who was raising her and doing a fine job of getting her to school and taking care of her.  I would like to make sure she gets back to him, so that he doesn't have to worry any more."  She would detail her own part in the rescue, but otherwise remain silent.

(I figure Raven has had run-ins with this captain before, so there might not be all that good of relationship there...)

"Well, after we did in fact determine that the 'Barleyman' can teleport, and our friend returned, we traveled to where this man called home. We retrieved the missing people as far as I'm aware. Once the victims were safely on this side we returned to collect all these sugar loafs, because their either evidence or the reason there's a sugar shortage. Once that was complete, I returned on my own to ensure that if the Barleyman's 'Auntie' did show up she wouldn't be able to use the place without serious rebuilding. Only thing left to do is destroy what allowed them to teleport in the first place," Mindartis waits for everyone else to speak before he does.

Again, he held his tongue. Elwin could barely look at the children, frozen like they were. And here these "authority figures" had let this happen right under their nose! So where was their dazzling competence now? Why hadn't they already rushed their powerful magicks out to free the children? Arms crossed, he simply glared at the elf, waiting for the officers to do what he considered to be their real jobs.

Del projects an image of Barleyman: it's a weird thing, with a body the width of a fence post, cylindrical, with no particular neck or any variation in width. It wears a strange black suit and white shirt, with a very tall hat.  It seems to be made of some amber-colored crystal, its only features two eyes and a grinning mouth that look like they have been crudely chiseled into its surface.

The police officer is impressed by Del's image, evidence and detailed account. She orders a sprite to get back to headquarters and bring a wagon for the victims and other evidence.

"Don't worry, we will do our best to see that ALL the victims get back where they belong," she promises Raven. "Yeah, we know who Huark is. When an ogre moves into in your city, the police pay attention. He's never caused any trouble, though he keeps some questionable company at times." (She looks a little narrowly at Raven) "Don't we all, though."

She looks without comment on Elwin's angry, silent glowering.

"Okay, so tell me about this teleportation," she says in response to Mindartis. "I assume it's some sort of device, from what you say."

Mindartis holds up the hoop, "I'm not the smartest man, I only understand what Del has told me, something about it let's you travel from here to what I'm assuming is the Shadowfell."

"I suppose if you really wanted to I could take you over there briefly to prove we're not crazy," Mindartis shrugs.

Lieutenant Hooleran takes the hoop and asks how it works. A moment later she disappears, taking two of the sprites with her. After a long time, she returns.

"Well, whatever was knocked off the cliff is gone.  There's a river at the bottom of that canyon, and everything's been swept away.  Can't search the house till it stops burning.  I hope that you're SURE you found everyone who was in there.  I'll get someone in there to put out the flames and examine the site. Hope that they don;t find any charred bodies."

"All the same, good work," she says. "I don't take back or apologize for what I said before: police work should be left to professionals.  But you got lucky, and what you did saved these people, and I'm sure their families won't care that they were rescued by amateurs risking their necks on a gamble. I'll get them back to the station, and we'll get them examined and back on their feet as soon as we figure out how to help them. And if the sugar checks out, it's yours--worth quite a bit at the moment, too."

"I'll be in touch," she promises. "I'm sure the mayor will also want to express her gratitude.  if this was a construct as you think, then there may be more of them out there. But for now, you've given the Free City a little more freedom and safety, and we owe you for that. Now, I have about three days parchmentwork to do on tonight's events, so I'm off.  I suggest you get some rest."

She gets on the wagon, now loaded up with sugar crates and pixie cubes, and rides off.  You suddenly realize that you spent an entire day hunting for Huark, and an entire night hunting for the Barleyman, and you are probably pretty tired, too...

Del glowers at M for losing his hoop. You can borrow my hoop lieutenant, as long as you need, if it helps. As you say, police work is for professionals. But if you'll excuse my saying, sometimes heroics are for amateurs. Then back to the Lark and Sparrow for bed