"She was only an associate through the Arcane Brotherhood. Dzaan had not been traveling with her before the murders. Granted now that you bring up that I am beginning to question why I gave it to her..." Her brow furrowed as though if trying to make sense of something.

"I need to go check on a few things. If you need me or you are looking for work you can find me here in the town hall for the next few hours. Of I'm not here I'll be here in the morning."

Jitter tugged on Kythor's leg, "Maybe I should follow her, make sure she is on the up and up."
roleplayerguild.com/rolls/22167
Rolled for stealth 16+7=23
Jitter dedided to trail the captain woman, pausing here and there, not to give away his position.
If she stopped or happened to glance back his way, he would step behind someone's legs, or hide behind a barrel or other object, but not once did his eyes leave her.
Perception roll (9) just in case.

She walks into the town hall heading to a room to the left, which appears to be where she does some work from. She searches around the room for a moment looking for something. After several minutes she stops and sits behind a small desk looking through a small pile of papers.

drive.google.com/file/d/1HhFI6zbPxpF0…

Map for the town hall.

The half-elf watched Imdra leave, their halfling companion slinking off to trail her. Kendra shook her head. He was going to get them into trouble before long. If her often reckless curiosity didn't do it first.

"Avarice. Lovely name." She turned to her tiefling and human companions. "I know we've already got work, but I can't help but be more interested in this. Maybe we should go see what work she's offering? Might be something we can do alongside looking for this chwinga thing." It wasn't like they knew exactly where to go to search for the little forest spirits anyway. And this situation here reeked of secrets and hints of magic. Kendra had to stick her toes in and at least test the water.

Theodorick nods his head in agreement with Kendra. If there was more work to be done so be it, the party all seemed interested in the coin regardless. This would also allow them to gain some favor with the people here, Mathews not being one interested in a self inflicted funeral pyre anytime soon.

Kythor quietly sighed as he watched Jitter disappear into the crowd. He'd much rather the four of them all stick together than split up so quickly, especially since they barely knew the layout of the town. Still, he did at least tell them exactly where he was going. He supposed no harm was done. As for whether or not to visit the captain, Kythor thought about it for a moment. Taking on more jobs than what their little group could handle could be an issue, and he wasn't too keen on picking up a bunch of new jobs - obligations - to a town they may not even be staying in for that long. Still, if it was something they could do on the way or something that wouldn't take much time, Kythor couldn't see the harm. More money was more money, after all. As long as they kept in mind their original job, Kythor wasn't about to turn down the opportunity.

Besides, he quietly wondered to himself if Imdra could give him more information about where Avarice was headed. He was admittedly quite impressed by the prospect of a tiefling who apparently belonged to the Arcane Brotherhood, a rather prestigious sounding organization, and he couldn't shake her potential involvement in the recent murder of the adventurers. While she may have not had a direct hand in the murders, she did receive his spellbook - perhaps that would have some answers. Granted, he was less interested in finding out if the spellbook held any secrets than he was in meeting another of his kind. The way he saw it, this 'mystery' had already been solved by the townsfolk. Unless they were paying them to investigate further, he didn't see much of a point in chasing down 'what-ifs' or humoring any such fantasies further.

Facing Kendra and Theodorick, he gave them an affirmative nod. "Looks like we're all in agreement then," Kythor said. "Don't see the harm in us chasin' down another job offer, just as long as it doesn't get in the way 'a what we came here to do. We wouldn't want to go through all the process of capturing a chwinga and bringing it to Dannika only to find out she's gone and got one already and skipped town. Who knows? Maybe Imdra's seen a chwinga or two around here and can set us in the right direction."

"Dammit, I forgot to ask about that."
The halfling kicked his boot in the snow mud, and turned on his heels.
He marched back to the Town Hall, knocked on the door before entering.
"Hello is anyone here?, I'm looking for some books or scrolls."
Jitter walked over to the room, where he saw the woman captain go in, and knocked on the door.
"Hello, I'm looking for a library of sorts."

The party all gathers into the town hall to find captain Imdra in the larger office space. She was relatively easy to find and informs the party that there are four missing fishermen and she'd like for them to go find them.

She turns to Jitter and informs him that there is a small library on the third floor and offers to show him where it is.

@Lurking Krog

"Oh, okay, I can find it, third floor, you said?"
The halfling wobbles away before she could respond to him.
Jitter didn't want her help, nor does he wanna work for people who burn criminals alive, goes against his own brotherhood code.
Following the stairs up, he was sure he was now on the second floor by now.
"Only one more floor to go." "Whew" he said wiping his brow.
Finally reaching what he believed to be the third floor, he opened the door and walked inside.
"Excuse me, do you have any books or scrolls about capturing Chwingas?"

Kendra was relieved that when they found the halfling in the town hall, the captain wasn't arresting him. She wondered how long that would last. She waited while the captain showed Jitter their collection of books on the third floor. Missing fishermen... going missing from a place like this sounds like death.

She remained in the town hall until Imdra returned from the upper floor. "Anything else you can tell us? Where they were last seen, if they have families in town we could talk to, what you suspect might've happened to them? Any relation to this business with the wizard and the adventurers?" Find those missing fishermen wasn't exactly enough to go on. "Also... what would be the payment you're offering for finding them?"

@HEAVY METAL

The person in the library looks at Jitter with a confused expression.
"I don't think we have any information on that. I have heard tales however of people interacting with them, mostly playing whatever game the beings are waiting. Feel free to search the library though, we don't have a whole lot but maybe you'll find something."

The person heads towards one of the rooms towards the western side of the third floor.

@Alarielle

"No they went missing after the murders. About a tenday ago, the murders were close to two tenday ago. The fishermen may have gotten stranded by a blizzard or wrecked their vessel in the ice flows of Lac Dinneshere. Most of the ice flows are nearer the coast but most the fisher folk prefer those areas. You may be able to borrow a boat from someone of you need it."

She pauses for a moment. "As for payment I'm not authorized to pay any funds but I do have a couple of other items that I had confiscated from Dzaan before his execution. It's your choice of a this grey bag, which I'm pretty sure is magical, and a scroll of fireball."

Once inside, Kythor let down his hood and removed his scarf as a sign of courtesy. As a result, when he heard the payment would only be in the form of a 'magical grey bag' and a scroll of fireball - effectively naught - the disappointment and disinterest was made apparent on his face. Especially given the fact that they'd likely have to find somebody to borrow a boat from, this seemed to be a waste of time in the tiefling's opinion. He might be invested in pursuing the fishermen after they deliver the chwinga to Dannika, but charity work was not something Kythor was interested in. Even at that, by that point the fishermen could very well be starving or freezing to death. He furrowed his eyebrow in thought. To him, it seemed like they would either have to capture a chwinga and bring it to Dannika and leave the fishermen to their fate, or they could try to save the fishermen and risk somebody filling Dannika's request...

What was a life worth to him?

He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat before addressing Imdra herself. "I don't want to speak for all of us, but personally, I'm not real interested in finding out what happened to your fishermen," he said. "At least, not while we've got somethin' else going. Personally, I'm not real sold on a scroll I can't use and some sort of a magical bag... unless that bag's got an endless supply of arrows or food in it. Like I said though, as long as we're all traveling together, I'm not gonna be the one who says what we do and don't do." These others had their own reasons and motivations for traveling. For Kythor, it was to prevent these people - the ones he was traveling with - from falling prey too quickly to the various brutal fates of these lands. They hadn't exactly paid him, sure, but there was safety in numbers, so Kythor saw no reason why not to stick around with these people.

There was another reason, of course, but Kythor didn't like to think about that. Not right now.

With that, the tiefling turned his head to nod at both Kendra and Theodorick. "You two interested in tracking down these fishermen?" He asked. "Pay don't sound too good, but I'm thinking if we wait until after we settle our other business, it may be too late for 'em."

Theodorick was throwing around a few different ideas in his head before landing on one he liked. "It doesn't sound like too bad of a job but I think we should wrap up our other stuff first, adding more tasks will end up bitin us eventually" Mathew says folding his arms across his chest. He turns towards Imdra with a more solemn look across his face before speaking "I don't wanna say no either, since these fishermen might need our help, but they have been gone for quite awhile and it sounds like we'll be retrieving what's left of em instead of bringin em home". "I say we should hurry up our search for the chwinga than see if we can find the lost fishin folk, while workin at that we can find a boat to borrow too" Theodorick adds hopefully giving some more focus on their objectives at hand.

"You are looking for a chwinga? I haven't seen one myself but I've heard some of the locals near the edge of the town saying they've seen tiny figures running around or even riding on a fox."

"Regardless if you got out after the fishermen let me know."

Jitter searched thru the books and scrolls, tossing each one to the side, if they were not important.
History check roll 9
Not seeing anything of use, the halfling sighed, as he closed the last book.
"That was a waste of time."
"Wait...what's this?"
He picked up a strange book with blood stains, "This could be a clue,better show the others."
He slid the book into his backpack, (sleight of hand 2+7=9)
Jitter thanked whoever was tending to the library, before exiting.
He couldn't wait to show the others what he had found, but his stomach protested.
The door of the town hall swung open, as Jitter exited, heading for the nearest tavern.
Passing someone on the street, he asked which way to the nearest drinking hole?

On of the remaining folk who were clustered near the pyre direct him to the White Lady Inn, the closest place for food and drink. The Wet Trout was a little farther but was the other place in town to go to.

On of the remaining folk who were clustered near the pyre direct him to the White Lady Inn, the closest place for food and drink. The Wet Trout was a little farther but was the other place in town to go to.

"White Lady inn?, I thank you and so does my belly." he said tipping his hat, if he had one that is, so it was a little awkward of his gesture, since he wasn't wearing a hat.
Despite the cold bitter wind, Jitter was in a fairly good mood, as he whistled a tune.
Eventually he had found the place, and wiped his boots before entering the establishment.
Jitter strolled up the counter, and hopped up onto a seat.
"How much for some hot stew, and apple cider?"
" And a bit of information as well?"

Kendra grimaced. "It doesn't sound good, no. If they've been gone that long out here their odds aren't excellent. To the right buyer a magic bag and a scroll like that might be worth more than the chwinga job, but that's assuming I could convince Imdra to give us both." She was always interested in magic items, so that bag had some allure to her, and a Fireball was certainly more powerful magic than she could cast on her own right now. But if the group wasn't interested, she wasn't fool enough to take on the job alone.

"Chwinga hunting it is then."

"We might come back to try to find 'em, but for now we're occupied with our chwinga hunt. You said some were spotted on the edge of town?" The tiefling nodded. This definitely made their hunt easier - they'd been seen around these parts, so he presumed that if they looked hard enough, they could find a few around town. It might be worthwhile to find one, let it escape, and then track it back to its dwelling. Admittedly, Kythor wasn't too sure about the structure of chwingas, and whether they lived or traveled in packs, but he was certainly interested in learning more about them through observation.

"Good. That helps us out quite a bit. We'll look around, see if we can't find a few, maybe see if we can track it down. Has anybody in particular claimed to have seen 'em around a lot? Maybe near or in their homes, rummaging through their things?" Kythor asked. It could be that they've taken an interest in one of the citizens. If this was the case, this would make the process of finding and catching one a lot easier on them. At the very least, it'd help narrow down their search any further if they could find a particular point where they happen to congregate.