Biscuit does indeed "Boof" one last time, before taking off on the duo. He never gets too far away as to leave their sight completely, and is always ready to stop a ways ahead to check and see if they are keeping pace. Meanwhile...

"First off, no idea what you mean by optics, and I'll take you word on the rest." Doozey replied, giving her a still somewhat dubious look. "That said, this isn't something we wanting to leave be. As soon as our little meeting is over, we'll need to move on them immediately. The less time they have to prepare to move about, the harder it'll be for them to slip the proverbial noose. This whole abuse of the Gift-..." He shook his head. "It's not right. Utar or whoever will need to remove it from their system, or they need to go through the 'Taming'. If not, young or no, I... I cannot ignore their presence." He continued quietly, giving Neya a serious look.

"True," Neya nods. "However, we need to fight them on our terms, where we have more of an advantage than they do. This time, we were caught outnumbered and unaware of what they could do. Next time, we'll have help, we'll know better, and we have not revealed our potential."

(OOC: Apologies for the short post tonight. It has been quite a busy day.)

Neya takes the reins of the interrogation from Doozey as the boy's erratic behavior and movement further loosen him from the ropes. The monk sets up a discrediting scene for the teenagers, hiding them in darkness and moving away from this specific alley. A few moments later, they can see the ball of darkness move about in a directionless manner. The girl emerges from it at a certain point looking immensely confused. The boy continues to scream from within. No spectator seems to want any piece of this madness.

Over at a different alley, and now alone, Doozey and Neya argue a bit about the approach taken to the questioning session and how it came to a conclusion. By the time the conversation moves on to the topic of how to go about the next steps, a boofing Biscuit reappears from around a corner with both Graxx and Utar in tow. Graxx seems a bit disappointed that he is not arriving at a fight scene, and thus, does not yet get to use his glaive. The barbarian also carries a new jug on his back.

CRAP is now reunited. Graxx and Utar have no idea about what happened at the alleyway, while Neya and Doozey don't know what has happened to the fiery house. What is the plan from here?

Trotting down the alley, Utar looks around expecting...well...something that might indicate a struggle, a fight, CRAP's usual shenanigans.

"What happened to you two? Find anything out? We put out the fire and boarded up the house. Graxx here got a nice jug."

Graxx points back in the direction of the house.

"Yes.  Looks like the fire was intentional.  There are a few other items we left there for Villa's sake.  Hopefully the boards will keep the thieves out."

Graxx looks at his glaive and sighs placing it back onto his back and he retrieves the jug.  He will curiously make the pouring motion to see if anything comes out.

"The fire was intentional." Neya confirms. "The culprits are four shapeshifters, at least two of them were teenagers. We incapacitated two of them and the others escaped. "

Neya relays what the boy had told them and what happened with them.

Utar raises an eyebrow at the mention of shapeshifters and looks towards Doozey hoping he might elaborate.

"Like the one from the island, the rat?"

The moment Graxx mention the house was Villie, Doozey saw red, for he had not quite made the connection during the interrogation. As he stood there glaring at the ground, clenching and uncleaing his tiny little fist, it took a few moments for him to realize the directed question. "Mn. Not quite the same. This 'Momma' of there's seems to be able to use an alternative for the same results... Which, would explain their ability to put Neya sleep earlier, and transform at will without having gone through the taming, or having it forced in some way."

He folds his arms just to keep from clenching his hands, and glaring harder at the ground. "Then again.. hm... Hmph! Your old friend was right to be wary of moles, by the way, in case you din't catch it yet. For their 'boss' had one among the fist slipping them details. Tho' according to the kid, that one at least been taken care of." Doozey sighs and finally looks up at the others. "In any case, one way or another, as I was saying with Ms. Neya, they're gonna need to be dealt. Preferably some time tonight or early morn. Before they have too much time to move their bases."

DM's Screen:

CRAP takes a moment to catch up. Utar and Graxx share what happened at the arson scene, including tales of fans, guards, weird minor magical items, and a strange jug. As a way of illustration, Graxx uncorks the jug in questions and begins to pour its contents on the ground. He murmurs something about what he'd like to quench his thirst with and, where there was nothing before, pint upon pint of fresh and cold beer materializes. All of it being wasted on the ground, at least initially.

In turn, Neya and Doozey share their half of the tale, including shapeshifting robbers, a mother who is a gang leader, the potential places of their hideout, and their connection to a certain Black Fist who was both a literal and a figurative rat. Doozey takes a few extra minutes to let the news about the ownership of the burnt home sink in, an then another moment to theorize on the sources of power of the gang leader.

Once everyone is caught up, Doozey suggests going after this gang of robbers either tonight or in the morrow. What shall CRAP do?

"Going after them now would leave us a lot of ground to cover and if they're able to become animals who's to say we'd even be able to track them?"

Running a hand over his back of his neck, Utar continues,

"I think we need more information. As I see it, we maybe have two, three ways to find it. One, find Podo. Yovir wouldn't have given us his name of he didn't think he'd be useful, maybe he knows something, noticed where animals congregate around here, maybe where they enter the city from? Two, speak to a member of the Welcomers. Hard to think that the thieves guild would be turning a blind eye to robberies in Phlan I reckon they'd be looking into this too. And three? I guess we could speak to the Black Fist? Those two guards we meet were pretty oblivious though, I doubt they would be that useful."

Both Doozey and Biscuit give Utar an almost incredulous look, look to each other, and then back to the half-orc with an even somehow more incredulous bend to their expression. But eventually with a roll of their eyes, they brush off the lack of faith, and listen to the rest intently. "In other words, we find Podo. Because we've already met with Fist on this matter, if'n you can recall, and it'd be just us informing them -- or more accurately, your old friend -- about who the culprit is."

"Because least you forgotten, they haven't been making headway on the robberies. And, I doubt that has changed over the past few days without their having bothered to look to strange beasts in the area. The welcomers? Sure, we might have a temporary ally in them, assuming they've figured out the beast problem. But they'd just as soon as stab us in the back at the first opportunity to acquire whatever their rivals have stolen, or so I suspect. So the real question is if we have the time to find this Podo?" He asked, reminding loosely of the meeting in the evening. A meeting he has forgotten who it was supposed to be with, assuming he was ever informed fully, but remembers vaguely of its importance.

"Honestly, if there was more time, I'd want to go after them right now. One of them has been marked using a bit of hunter mysticism. Makes it easier for me and Biscuit here to track. Though it won't last for more than a half an hour at most at this point."

Graxx taps his glaive.

”I’m glad we got this thing silvered.”

Graxx turns to Doozey.

”Awhile back we were looking around on an Island.”

Graxx begins to pace a bit.

”There we ran into a wererat.  A normal blade didn’t harm the creature.  We were able to overcome it.  Turns out it was a young boy who had been bitten.”

Graxx pauses for dramatic effect.

”By a Blackfirst guard.  The guard was a wererat.  I’m guessing we have a connection here.  Guards name was Nalek.  He bit the lad when he caught Nalek stealing food from his boss.”

Doozey makes a silent 'o' with his mouth, as well as nods a few times. "Well that explains a few things, it does. I was figuring the kid you brought in had been the one they were talking about. Good to know we don't possibly have to pay that one a visit as well." The Stoutling expressed nonchalantly.

"Didn't that boy in the alley say that they were hiding out in one of the smaller wooded areas around the city?" Neya asks Doozey, "If I could make a rough sketch of the city, would you be able to indicate which would be the most likely place for their hideout based on the movements of the one you're tracking?"

Graxx takes the time to explain to Doozey that the boy whose curse they lifted was not the same wererat as the one the dog-shapeshifters (lets call them weremutts) were referring to. That important detail clarified, the party continues to plan. Doozey argues for giving immediate chase by taking advantage of his magical mark on one of the creatures. Utar argues for patience and champions the cause for an information gathering mission beforehand.

Neya brings out a map to aid in the discussions.

(OOC: It is up to @MB how much he has shared about this evening's meeting. I have mentioned it here in the thread, but whether Utar said anything to the party is up to him.)

"That's.. hmm..." Doozey taps his chin a few times. "If the area is as small as he says it is, without knowing where most of their thieving has been concentrated, it'd be difficult. But, I suspect they would want something close enough to come to and fro without attracting too much notice. So... worth a shot, I suppose." Once given a chance to look over the map, he rubs his chin a few times, before pointing to the bit of forestry to the immediate north of the northern most bridge, and then the smaller patch to the right.

"These two. Close enough at hand to not necessarily draw notice, and still be able to 'get work', as it were. I'd lean more in the direction of the larger one in the north, as it offers the option of leaving town fairly quickly along the road, slipping into the city, or if they really get desperate, jumping in the river."

Graxx puts the jug back on his back looking at the now drying puddle of beer on his back.

”I’m anxious to find these weremutts and get back to town to explore this magic jug more.  If I look in it, there’s nothing there.  But if I pour cold beer comes out.”

Utar lets the others get on with making plans, his mind wandering elsewhere. Looking to the sky he tries to gauge the time again.

He hasn't seen the trifling for some time. Even when they were in the same unit, he barely saw Moneus if the tiefling didn't want to be seen. Either that or he was off on some special job...

Exhaling a deep breath, Utar knows he isn't willing to pass up this opportunity.

"If you need to chase after this right now, you need to chase it without me. Burral have me a line on a member of my old unit. He's here. I'm meeting him tonight."

(OOC In case I can't post again before Lerus moves the narrative on, I'm happy to share what Utar knows about Moneus and their meeting.)

"Ah... One hardly needs to guess what the subject of that discussion is..." Neya says as she nods at Utar, wishing him luck.

She then returns to the original conversation, "Back to the topic at hand, our greatest threat would be their alpha, obviously. If she is like that rat shapeshifter, the she is likely to bestow a similar curse."

Looking at the group's map, Doozey takes a couple of educated guesses on where the shapeshifters' hideout might be located. Going by his analysis and Neya's earlier elimination of the Quivering Forest as a candidate, the party narrows down the list of potential hideouts to just two spots. Hoping to confirm his guess, Doozey concentrates on his magic and realizes he has no more than 40 or so minutes left on his Hunter's Mark.

Graxx expresses his agreement to go looking for the mutts, but Utar clarifies that the group will likely have to split up if the hunt cannot wait for the morrow. With the cleric's explanation and the rest of the group's recollection of conversations with Captain Burral, all members of CRAP now understands they have to choose between two hunts... at least for the night.

Utar looks up to the sky and uses some of the basic scout training ironically taught to him by Moneus back in the day. He judges that sunset should arrive in no more than two-and-a-half hours.

(OOC: So, are we splitting up the party or postponing one of the hunts?)