6th of Patchwall (cont...)

The party discusses their next move.
"So, we talked to Sobir and he is sending us back so we're going to go back?" asks Snape of the party.
"Actually," drawls Leon, "I have to talk to Father Sobir. I've got some, well, I got to admit, some worries.
"I'm not surprised," sympathizes Jarel rather unsympathetically. "Welcome back, by the way. And we are officially not under orders to stay away until someone is dying or dead."
"That kinda works for me," says Leon.
"Apparently Jarel got it wrong," Sabrina says.
"Its what he said," sighs Jarel.
"I was there, he gave him a literal order," Snape defends.
"So why did he change his mind?" challenges Sabrina.
"Because he didn't realize tha Jarel would take a literal order as a literal order," replies Snape.
"Let's make sure someone else is with Jarel when he gets our orders from now on," decides Pandora.
"Actually..." Leon begins.
"Hey I was there! I can verify it was a literal order!" Snape interrupts.
"He said 'don't come back until we're dead or dying'," Jarel adds.
"See, I could have read in between the lines," says Sabrina.
Snape says skeptically, "Sure. You convince Jarel that he needs to read between the lines."
"Actually, the last time we read between the lines of something Father Sobir said, he didn't like it very much, says Leon.
"I've been trying to convince Jarel to read between the lines ever since..." begins Sabrina.
"Actually, I got myself quite flambasted for reading between the lines," says Leon. "Although, our bounty hunter did finally find something."
"Our bounty hunter did?" asks Sabrina.
"He's got a lead," answers Leon.
"He has a lead, yes," affirms Jarel. "However, we haven't bee retasked to follow up the lead."
"Oh," says Sabrina. "So we have to go back to that place?"
"Yes," Leon and Jarel say together.
"OK, so wait a minute..." begins Pandora.
"It is not our place to assign priorities," states Jarel flatly. "We've been reprioritized."
Pandora continues skeptically, "So, finding Cohen, isn't a priority?"
"Not as much of a priority as this place at the moment," replies Jarel. "Alora was quite interested in in the whole thing."
"Is she coming with us?" asks Pandora.
"No, she is researching," answers Jarel.
"Especially with the Priory rings we brought back," drawls Leon.
"Seeker rings," quibbles Jarel.
"And the sword," adds Snape. "She was interested in the sword."
"She's the one that gave me the sword," Sabrina reminds everyone.
"So is Cohen safe then? To come back into town?" asks Pandora, in a tone that could be either confused or sarcastic.
"No, he's under death sentences," says Jarel.
"Yes. With a bounty hunter after him," Snape reminds them.
"So, are we paying that bounty hunter?" asks Pandora.
"Uh," replies Leon. "It wasn't much. It was a bet. If he finds him before us, we have to pay him something like 50 to 100 gold pieces."
"So we don't have to pay this guy," says Pandora. "We can tell hm..."
"It really was a small bounty and it was cash on delivery," says Snape. "If we come up with him before he does, then he deosn't get any more money."
"Well, its pretty much free," Leon says. "We would have spent more money doing our own tracking of Cohen, so if he can beat us, he can beat us."
"It gets the job done," agrees Snape.
"What's the lead?" asks Pandora. "Did we hear?"
"No," answers Snape.
"We weren't in town," confirms Leon.
"Something feels wrong with this," disagrees Jarel. "It feels like he's getting cheated."
"Who's getting cheated?" asks Sabrina.
"Or enticed into being killed by Cohen," finishes Jarel.
"We can get him more cash," soothes Pandora.
"We warned him that Cohen was dangerous," Leon says/ "And he did seem like a confident person."
"He was big, anyway," says Snape.
"Big and rough," Leon elaborates when Jarel's hard stare continues. "We were willing to work with him buthe seemed to want to work alone."
"I'm not aware of anything..." flatersSnape. "That is we didn't force him to do anything."
"It was his idea, wasn't it," Brent says, siding with the other magical members of the party.
"If he wants to go after a guy for the possibility of getting paid, We can always tip him

After awhile it is noted that Elestar is conspicuously absent. They go back to the Draco Verde to find that his bed has not been slept in. Pandora recalls that when her and Sabvrina went to bed, Elestar was still in the common room, getting pretty friendly with Radie Gayoral of Radie's Fine Shoes. Jarel talks to the innkeeper and he recalls them leave together. Jarel aks what's wrong with that and the innkeeper answers, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

The party decides they best go and fetch Elestar from Radie's Fine Shoes and head out. There are two customers out front of Radie's, claiming that she is not open yet. It's 10:30 and she hasn't opened yet."

They go around to the back and knock. Snape stays at the front door. There is a door there but it is locked. After a few miutes, nothing happens. Pandora listens at the door and cannot hear anything. Sabrina attempts to pick the lock and is poisoned by a needle trap. A needle trap on a shoe store? Her hand swells up. She drinks her Anti-venom potion as she feels the poison flowing through her veins.

Sabrina and Pandora head to the church to try and get the problem fixed. Brother Drake cannot help them. Father Sobir is in meetings and Father Mulcahie is off somewhere doing something. No you can't wander around the church.

The party retuns and examines the door. Sabrina decides to check to see if the trap is now disarmed. Pandora insists that she do it instead. Snape conjectures that blowing the door off of its hinges would be much easier. Pandora finds no trap.

Leon mentions that Radie is a married woman and that her husband is an officer in the Seventh Dawn army. "He's always one the road. Maybe he came home. He's a big solider boy and could do some damage to Elestar."

The goes back to the Draco Verde and question the innkeeper some more. Pandora asks, "Who else was here when Radie and Elestar left the bar?"
"Waxy the candle-maker was in here," replies the innkeeper. "Agko was in here as usual, sitting in the corner drinking his beer. Fandrula was in here too, and bu=oy was he grumpy. He was complaining about that new armorer place opening up and taking all of his business away. And Odimar Barber. Don't see him in here very often."
"Why is that>" asks Pandora.
"Well, you know, he's got all them little kids," replies the innkeeper with a bit of a grin.
Jarel mutters, "He's probably running around trying to find Tyssa."
Pandora, hearing this, asks, "Is that his child?"
"I believe so," answers Jarel.
Pandora returns back to the innkeeper, "Did they say where they were going when they left?"
The innkeeper ignores her for the moment as he has just remembered soemthing. "Oh, and there was that merchant fella. He was sure drowning his sorrows."
"Merchant fella?" says Sabrina. "What merchant fella?"
"I was sure getting tired of hearing HIS story," continues the innkeeper. "He was hit up for half the value of some masterwork (whatever that means) items paid for in advance by Cohen that he's now stuck with. He brought it all here to town and now he's stuck with all the merchandise and can't get the last half owed to him."
Pandora turns to Sabrina with a low comment, "Maybe we can get some good deals."
Merchant's name is

Radie is in the bar most nights. Innkeeper sayd he didn't pay too much attention as he was busy, despite him saying awhile ago that there were only 4 people in the bar. He then hints that a big tip might be good for some more information. After the tip he mentions that he overheard Elestar mention that he had a childhood dream of "doing it" in a stable.

Pandor asks Leon about going to the stable. Leon is taken aback as there are 5 stables in town.

They talk to Amias Crowsly the stableman. He lets them have a look around his stables. "Are ye gonna rent somethin?"

Elestar is discovered in a stable under a hayloft. He is covered in blood. He has a bad headache and can't remember anything about later in the night the previous night.

He keeps asking for an anti-venom potion to cure his headache.

Elestar last remembers talking to Radie in the bar. He remembers nothing else about the night before.

"All six people say I left with her?"

"Well, one of them," Pandora answers.

Jarel examines the blood spatter on his tunic. Jarel sees it has been splashed on from an outside source. He also has a tear in the material of his left shoulder, but the blood doesn't appear to come from the tear.
The party asks to see Elestar's weapons.
"I can't believe you are even asking me!" declares Elestar loudly.
"Maybe you got into a fight and were just defending yourself," explains Snape.
All weapons are shown and there is no blood on any of them.

Pandora asks about any disturbances during the night, and the stableman says that the stable is closed all night, so nobody is even there.
Party backtracks between the stable and the bar to see if they can find any blood pools or other signs of disturbance.

Elestar is arrested on suspicion, as Radie cannot be found. He briefly turns invisible to show that he's "dangerous". He allows himself to be locked up.

"Just what I need, locked in a cage with Father Leon preaching!"

Elestar disappears and Pandora laughs.
After a bit he turns himself in again.

Radie's body is discovered in her bedroom in the back of the shoe store. She has a great many deep and wide stab wounds.

The party discovers a broken open cashbox, a few drops of blood and a magic cloak in the front of the shop.