Shoe Thief

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: Accidental Assault Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn at this point was pretty certain she had made friends with the locals. Though tonight was a bit less productive then she would have liked, she hoped that at the very least she was able to make things smoother during the rest of the investigation. "Aye, a rather strait forward job. But it pays the bills." Kathryn replied Lawrence on his comment about her work. "Let me tell ya, I appreciate any help you can offer." He seemed to put together the dots about herself, her new group, and the liberation of the win cart. As he praised her, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt. They were too late to stop a body count. Kathryn accepted the wine with a smile on her face. She didn't want praise for the job. She saved booze, let her companion take a hit she didn't need to, and left with little remains of the man to be buried. Even now, her investigation had leaned away from being helpful. She hoped for better things as the night went on, but she had to step up her game in the following days. Kathryn gave a thanks to those who cheered, shook hands with those who came up gracefully, and was polite about the whole thing despite her thoughts on the situation.

It seemed Curly had an identical thought on wine as Kathryn did. Though Kathryn would drink the offering, wine of any kind was far from her favorite. "Ya sure you wanna do this mate?" But Curly had made up his mind, he wanted to win his free beer. Kathryn figured the way the night had gone both ways were a win. If he won, she'd likely be able to get these men to spill the beans about anything going on in town here. If she won, free beer. Kathryn removed her steel gauntlet again placing it on the table next to her wine.

The two locked hands and locked eyes. This time Kathryn double checked to make sure she was well positioned, she braced herself better then last time. And this time she made sure not to underestimate her opponent. She figured to knock him out of the match quick to avoid any sudden surprises. Normally she'd like a chance to wear down her opponents and catch them off guard, but now she had been drinking, a lot. And Curly had shown to be a rather powerful threat. The two gave a brief nod to each other and began. Curly's arm buckled under Kathryn's sudden display of vigor and athleticism. His elbow did not slip. His chair did not wobble. Curly's arm slammed down on the table in such a way that jerked him fully out of his chair, hitting the floor so hard it rattled his now empty mug off of the side, to clock him soundly on the side of his head. Wobbly and confused, he rose and managed to get out the words, "I take my tea with milk, thank you," before sitting heavily back into his chair, cross eyed. Maurice covers his losses by slapping coins on the table.

Soon after Curly hit the floor Kathryn had both of her hands up to her face as if to hide her embarrassment. "I'm. So sorry." She spoke as if she had suddenly sobered up. Kathryn wasn't sure anyone heard it as soon after the man had asked for milk with his tea the crowd that had showed up to watch began to cheer. Nothing to keep people happy and entertained like a grown man getting knocked out cold. Kathryn rushed her steel gauntlet back on and snacked the coins from the table. "I'll be... right back." And she rushed her way back towards the bar trying to grab Roberts attention. "Beer." She said in a semi panicked voice. "Please..." She spoke again after a bit of hesitation. This would likely have to be her last one for the night. Though she was not shy of getting into fights, she didn't particularly enjoy knocking out civilians for the hell of it. Given a moment to calm down, she'd check with the lot of them on the way out tonight. "Make it two. One for me and one for the lad who just kissed the floor."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

So far Kathryn was enjoying her time. Was she making slow to no progress on her investigation? Yes. Was she drinking more then someone who was supposed to be working drinking? Also yes. Was she ready to drink more and have a great night with the locals? Absolutely. "You see that's why I had no intentions of getting out of this here chair. There happens to be two very nice ladies running about serving beer and food." Kathryn replied to Mr Ambitious with a big grin on her face implying that she just wanted to give the trio a hard time. Though when she looked around, she noticed Marita and the serving girl had left the main room. Good for them, it had been a long night for the duo. Kathryn hoped the worst was over for them. Though she had to admit she was feeling peckish.

It seemed Scowly was just having a long night, but she figured he'd warm up as the night moved on. "Nice to meet you Maurice and Curly. Everyone needs some drinking buddies." Kathryn greeted the two of them with a smile and a cheers motion emphasizing her first drink. Kathryn gracefully took drink number two from the last of the trio. "Thank you Lawrence." Once in hand Kathryn started work on her next drink. At the very least she was getting a fair amount of booze tonight. Curly seemed like he was warming up as well and seemed all for a rematch. Kathryn slammed down her half gauntleted hand with a loud thud then pointed said hand with an over exaggerated pointing jester. "There we go mates!" Kathryn said ready for this night to be a lot more enjoyable then expected. "Agreed. After this round. Loser buys the next. I look forward to the beer." Kathryn said with a big smile on her face.

Kathryn got to learn a bit about her new drinking mates while the lot of them drank their drinks. The trio seemed to cover a lot of general labor tasks without limiting them to any one specific field. Some of the labor even came across as semi skills and skilled labor to an extent which impressed Kathryn to hear. "Well you may have me beat in those areas. Couldn't tell you anything on bricks other then they get heavy. And are square. But it sounds like the lot of you have done close to everything in the field of manual labor." Soon after came Kathryn's turn with Maurice's questioning. "I happened to be working a job in the area assisting with the goblin problem. And just Kathryn works fine, the other titles just tend to get in the way of a relaxing evening. Unless you're trying to see if there is a special someone in me life. Then yes, Miss would apply." Kathryn took a rather large swallow of her beer before continuing. "As for stay, I have made some connections for housing while I sort out my job here. Nothing fancy, but it's private which with all the chaos going on I'll take." Kathryn wanted to share enough to keep the conversation going, but these were still new people to her. She didn't want to tell them all of her party's current state of affairs and find out that they were the cause of the disappearances.

Though unlikely, she wanted to err on the side of caution. "So, if ya notice any weird things going on or any goblins causing trouble, help a lass earn her pay for the week would ya?" Kathryn spoke not expecting the comment to go anywhere, but if the beer so far had helped looses anyone's lips maybe it would be enough of a hook for some information. "Sadly this week can't be all pleasure. It's a work week more then anything else. But if I can deal with the bastards quickly I may be able to enjoy the tail end of the things."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Things went better then they had any right to for Kathryn. She got herself some free beer to add to her nightly supply of beer. She made Friends introductions with the locals. And she figured that maybe they'd be a bit more cooperative now that things have eased up a bit. Plus, she had leverage. The bloody table. Once Scowly returned with Kathryn's beer the group sat at the table quiet as Kathryn started work on her drink. Kathryn figured after her moment in glory she should work a little better to ease tensions. "Name's Kathryn. Nice to meet you lot." She held out her hand to shake anyone willing to accept. "Mind if I ask ya names there? Mine's Kathryn." She figured the whole title with all names involved was not the way to get on these men's good side. Many people don't like being implied they are of a lesser class, especially after such a loss like Scowly had. Not that Kathryn would ever do that intentionally. Her found her titles and names worked well for talking to people in positions of power, but for the common folk it was better to be on the humbler side.

Kathryn would sit and listen quietly as the men spoke making sure to keep the bulk of her attention on them as they did so. When given the chance to speak up Kathryn asked "So are you locals? I just arrived in town and I was wondering what I could expect from Avonshire. And with work going well it seems like I'll be here for at least the festives." Plus, if they were locals maybe they had some more information that Kathryn was lacking and wouldn't be able to pull up on her own. Not at least until Robert was more willing to open up a bit more. Maybe Marita was having better luck then Kathryn at getting on the good side of the locals? At this point though Kathryn needed to be careful not to push too hard too fast. Getting on the good side of these men would be the best thing she could do before trying to push for some questions. Plus, who didn't want to open up to a friend about weird things happening in town? "If you're up for it, I'd be game for a rematch?" She spoke to Scowly when given the chance.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: Persuasion and Athletics Roll Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Watching around Kathryn didn't pick up too much of note, though she saw the spill that happened with poor Marita and wondered how the woman could handle it. The closest Kathryn had done to any kind of service work was guard duty for people with a lot more money then she could ever hope to have. Though Kathryn rarely tried to resort to violence as her first option, she was not against using it to anyone who couldn't take no for an answer. But Marita was holding her own rather well, Kathryn would offer the woman a drink when she was done with her shift. Then after thinking on it, she wasn't sure if the woman drank at all? Kathryn was also reminded she may not have been as observant as she thought as a comment was directed towards her, and she hadn't picked up who it came from until with were within a few steps distance. Had this been a combat situation, she could have found herself in a particularly bad situation. "w-what?" She registered the words as soon as she spoke, but she imagined it made her look like quite the fool in that moment.

Kathryn listened to the man talk, and then she understood where the resentment was. "Oh no no no, My apologies, I just assumed public house, any free seat was a free seat. It seems there is plenty of room for us all no?" She tried to give an innocent smile to it all. But it seemed the trio was having none if it. She noticed that one of the men was smiling towards her, and she had an odd feeling about what that may mean. Maybe he was just excited to see his friend arm wrestle a young girl? Either way, Kathryn had her own situation to sort out. And it seems peace was never an option. "If you're insistent, then sure. We got a deal." Kathryn adjusted herself while scowly took his seat across from her. Taking a moment to undo her armored gauntlet, then clasped hands with the laborer. Their hands had many comparisons, his were calloused and scared from likely years of intense manual labor. Kathryn's were calloused and scared from years in intense fighting. The most noticeable being Kathryn's scars were bigger.

The moment they locked hands and began to apply pressure Kathryn realized, she fucked up. She felt it in her shoulder, she was in a poor position to gain any considerable leverage with her strength. She could feel the strain against her shoulder and if this man was stronger then he looked, Kathryn applying too much force could cause some real harm to herself. The issue was now her pride was in the way of letting her just give up the fight. They held their grips for what felt like several minutes as both of them tried to force the other one down. Then Kathryn felt it, a slight give in the other man's push. Had Kathryn been clearly winning it she would have guessed the man was baiting her in, tricking her to give it her all and slam back when she wasn't prepared, but the man had the upper hand in this situation, even if only by a bit. Kathryn pushed hard against scowly with enough force that anyone with a lighter build may have to see a medical professional afterwards. She felt the push back at the last moment and worried that this whole thing was still a trick, but the recovery was too slow and the man's hand slammed down with a loud THUD against the wooden table. Cups shook, silverware jumped, there was an audible gasp from a woman the next table over. Kathryn was ecstatic! The moment the hands separated Kathryn grabbed her beer, chugged it, and threw her hands up in a cheer. "WOO!" Then she slammed her massive mug down on the table. "I'll be taking that beer lads." She spoke in her rather heavy foreign accent thrilled to have recovered from a situation she seemed like she had no right to win.

The man, Scowly had a look of shock and frustration on his face. He made some claims about slipping, but it seemed no one believed him. Kathryn wondered if that may be true and then saw an opportunity with these men. "How about this then? The table is a big too big for one girl to have to herself. Grab me my beer, and come join me for a seat. Table's big 'nough for the lot of us no?" She wondered if she could get these men to talk with her about local events better then the barkeep. And with the peace offering of sharing the table despite winning it to her lonesome, she hoped it was enough to ease tensions. Even if she suffered from some excessive celebration. It seemed making good with some locals could only help her situation. "And you." She pointed at Scowly with her ungloved hand. "If you're up for it, we can do a rematch over some more beer. Winner buys for the loser." If tensions eased, it could be a nice drinking game to get them more comfortable talking with her. "We can do same hands, or switch to lefties if ya like. I'm game either way." That part was a bit of a trap. Kathryn was ambidextrous. Though some tasks she preferred with specific hands, she was about equally coordinated with both hands.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn's ideas hadn't panned out anywhere close to what she wanted. On the plus side, she had her rather large beer in hand now. But beer alone could not solve her case. "Sir, I don't think you're stupid at all. I just want an outcome that benefited us both." She lifted the beer in emphasis. "Thank you for this by the way!" She spoke with a cheerful tone as if this was nothing more then a game and even losing was still fun. Once he left to serve other customers Kathryn turned and sighed. "_Balls..." She mumbled as she debated her next approach.

Kathryn saw Marita work out a deal with Bob to assist for the night, and she then took the time to help the barmaid. Pretty good plan overall, something which Kathryn debated herself, but it appeared she wore out her welcome pretty fast with Robert. She turned again to see if this was the case, but the man appeared too guarded and busy to cooperate with Kathryn much more. She debated going right to the barmaid to pick up work like Marita, but worried about putting too much pressure on the girl and messing up Marita's approach to things. Kathryn decided she still needed to be close in case things went south, but she couldn't risk compromising Marita's approach.

Massive beer in hand, Kathryn made her way to a comfortable seat in the middle of the room. For now, Kathryn figured she could at least keep an eye out for suspicious characters. People eyeing Marita and herself, or keeping an eye out for someone eyeing one of the other patrons. Someone who may be another soon to be victim of the disappearances. If no one stood out over time maybe she could get another shot with Robert as the place slowed down. Taking a large sip of her beer she sighed in frustration. She was out of her element, and events like this showed that rather clearly.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Bob and Niel's Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The party began splitting up to sort out their situation. Victoria was helping the L'Rose family, and Marita had decided to accompany Kathryn to the public house. Bringing up that it's not a good idea for anyone in the party to go alone, Kathryn appreciated the backup. The biggest worry Kathryn had about pairing up with Marita Bärbel was that the woman had a very strict all business way to go about her... well Business. Though Kathryn respected the woman for that regard she had to admit, that level of professionalism was not something Kathryn was used too. But in that same regard, Kathryn wasn't used to traditional investigation work. Most of what she knew she picked up from Ser Lucas and his drinking buddies. Which consisted of drunken ramblings at best.

The public house was a chaotic yet appealing situation. The downside to the situation was that it took Kathryn a rather long time to find Robert. And worse yet with how busy things were it would take several moments to not only get the man's attention, but to get the man into conversation. Looking around the only other set of hands on deck was this poor woman who was working her damnedest to keep things on her end held together. "Hi uh, Robert right? We met briefly while helping Ms. L'Rose drop off her casket of wine. I wondering if I could ask you some questions? You see I was hired to help handle the goblin problem and after witnessing the events of today I was wondering if Audrey's disappearance had something to do with my current job."

Roberts sneering face gave Kathryn uneasy feelings about the situation. His reply didn't help matters either. "Audrey? Girl has a mouth on her. The last time anyone saw that ungrateful wench was after she left here for the night. I haven't seen her in this pub since. You want to chase Goblins? Fine. You want to stay here while you do it, you'd better be spending money." The man clearly had a poor opinion of the woman. Kathryn took a few things from his statement though, she talks a lot, maybe the disappearances are witnesses to something? And her last sighting was after her shift, hopefully meaning that the window she went missing was rather small. Either way, there was a witness.

Kathryn pulled out two silver pieces. "Okay then. The biggest beer two silver can buy." An idea struck Kathryn, maybe one that could peak the barkeep. And one where even if it did work, having someone sober to make sure things didn't get out of hand was a good idea. The idea as a whole was rather flimsy, but it was one of Kathryn's strong suits. "Here's a proposition for you. A drinking contest. No one spends more then a drunk man trying to get a free drink." She thought back on the wording, and realized it made no sense. "Let me rephrase. I'll challenge anyone here to a drinking contest, the loser pays the winner's tab. That'll make some decent coin no?" Kathryn thought about how to make this work. "Enough to hopefully buy a moment of your time hopefully?" She could take a drink better then most, so if she got a couple free drinks and some useful information it sounded like a pretty good win. "Drunk men enjoy a good gamble. What better then a good drinking match?" The man spoke one language. Money, Kathryn's budget for bribery was limited, but a chance to make some good business? She could offer that.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Hayloft Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kosara came to assist in her attempts to make the young girl feel better about her rough situation. Though she seemed to be a bit distracted from her rough emotions Kathryn didn't think she felt all that much better. Kathryn wished she knew how to help the girl, But Kathryn wasn't the best at grieving herself. Even with Ser Lucas, she had spent the weeks following his death in a pub with enough beer to give the town drunks looks of concern. If the girl had been older Kathryn may have offered to take her to a pub herself to let her drink her feelings away while someone was with her to make sure things didn't go too far. But she was a child. Sir lucas when Kathryn went through her worst had built her up, and let her challenge her emotions into a will to fight that rivaled any competent fighter. Kathryn needed that to survive, but Lizbeth? She had more options to her name. Following Kosara's rather epic illusion Lizbeth spoke up. Kathryn found herself caught off guard. Friends? Kathryn pondered how to answer the question, but she figured the girl didn't need much of a glimpse of Kathryn over thinking the situation. "We met pretty recently, but I think so yeah." She found that friendly interest in all of her new party, though some seemed to be more open to the idea then others. Kathryn looked at the small girl some more. "Is there... something else on your mind?" Then something clicked for Kathryn. She had a rather shocked expression on her face her eyes going extremely wide with the realization. "Oh no no no uh... we're friends but.... not like that it's like uh... friend friends? Not... Friends like that." Kathryn gave the young girl an awkward smile.

This wasn't the first time something like that had happened, but it made Kathryn feel just as awkward every time. Each time she'd look back and think how silly it was considering the kinds of situations she could handle, and anything along those lines made her feel weird none the less. "Lizbeth?" Kathryn's tone went to a more serious direction. "Make sure to take care of yourself, and if you ever need anything come find us. Alright?" Kathryn wished she knew how better to help the girl. But she wasn't her family, and she didn't know how well to take care of those in grief outside of her own solutions for herself. She wished she could do more, but for now she wanted Lizbeth to know that she had people she could go to if need be.

Though she wished she could comfort the girl all night, she still had a job to do. And if things got too out of hand many others could be at risk too. Kathryn didn't have a strong preference for the wagon, she wasn't sure what use it would have without their mule present, but if there was a use she was overlooking she didn't want to step on anyone's toes. But as Kosara pointed out, the Mule would need to be taken care of either way, so returning them to the stables and Mr Fields seemed like a good thing to do. Kathryn debated where to start her side of the investigation. They had a lead in the public house, and Kathryn had the means to get her foot in the door in the Honey Barn. Her own issues were her own direct investigation skills were pretty entry level and needed work. As they had a more solid lead in the public house though, Kathryn figured she'd start there. Even in the Honey Barn, she at best likely could only turn it into the same kind of lead as the public house. And their missing Audrey. "I'm going to see what I can find out at the public house." She tried to be subtle about her intentions so that any unwanted listeners wouldn't get the context. "Anyone who wants to join, feel free." They had a sizeable enough party where if they needed to split up they could. But going together they could be more detailed. They had options none the less.

Despite the crowded streets and in the public house had broken out into song. Though Kathryn wasn't able to place any of the words she couldn't help but finding herself humming along with the crowd as the tune went on. If it wasn't for the job at hand this would be a rather fun celebration to be apart of, and Kathryn wished she could take more personal time to enjoy it. But lives were at stake here.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Honey Barn Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Marita had helped quite a bit while delivering the barrels. They were heavy to load in originally, and though unloading was easier the help was much appreciated. Kathryn made sure to give a thanks to Marita at each stop she helped with. Though maybe a little redundant after the first time Kathryn felt it was warranted. It did seem that everyone preferred the hayloft compared to the public house. It was nice that Kathryn wouldn't have to push her point or make an argument. Though the others likely didn't posses the same reasoning compared to herself, the fact that they all agreed made a huge help.

The deliveries themselves had their own interesting events. A Mr. Mallard owned the silver smith shop. But it was boarded up from the inside? That rang odd to Kathryn. She figured it could make sense if the city as packed with looters and martial law was in effect? Or maybe the man inside had some kind of disdain for the festival? She wasn't sure, and it seemed Cecily wasn't either. Kathryn would make note of it, and if she had some free time she would go check things out. Or if it showed any connection to current events, she may check it out sooner then planned. But unless her leads went dry or she found herself with a bit of extra time she was on a time table and couldn't risk pushing things too far. Though it did intrigue her.

On the plus side of things, things seemed to be going well with Madame Marcie. Though she wanted compensation she was willing to work with Cecily over time to figure things out. It also seemed that she had no interest in taking the party's favor to help make up for it. Though not having that debt over their heads was a good things Kathryn did see it as a chance to get to learn some tidbits of not so public information. Another spot she would have to consider, and to assist things Madame Marcie had offered work to Victoria and Kosara who had been sweet talking their way into the woman's thoughts. Though a variety of directions at that. It seemed Kathryn was also offered work, though it didn't seem of the same kind. Likely labor jobs. Though that tone left some questions for Kathryn, and she wondered if there was more to the woman's statements. It was a foot in the door if she decided to go that way. "Thank you very much for the offer my lady." She spoke towards Madame Marcie. "My schedule is a little unpredictable at the moment, but I won't forget this offer should the time arrive." She debated more how she could use this to her advantage. If she could time it away from her other tasks while freeing up the busy hours to talk to potential witnesses it could be a chance to talk to some of the staff in private. "To help keep you in mind, are there specific hours you would need services I can provide?" Plus if she made a little extra money on the side while figuring things out, added bonus. Plus, she stood out in her want to not loot the dead. Though she did accept Hugh's coins, much past that was still hard for her. So a few extra funds could come in handy.

The party was soon led to the hayloft, their temporary home as the investigation continued. "Thank you so much for helping us out here. I would like to see what things are like at the vineyard too at some point. But having somewhere in town will make our lives a lot easier." Though the thought of sleeping in a real bed seemed rather nice, the ability to operate within the township at all times of the day and night was rather useful. Especially if the party had to split up for any reason and needed to rush to a safe spot with allies quicker then expected. The hayloft it self wasn't terrible. No keep with a massive bed, but it wasn't as bad as Kathryn was preparing for it to be.

While Kathryn was exploring their temporary home she saw and soon heard young Lizbeth come in, finally hitting her breaking point. Looking at her, she reminded Kathryn of herself when she had to flee her own home, and when Ser Lucas had to take care of her. Kathryn walked up to the young girl, dropping down onto a single knee to get as close to her eye level as she could. "That'll be figured out. Don't you worry too much about that alright? Right now the biggest thing you need to worry about is making sure you're okay." Kathryn looked at this little girl unsure of how to help her. Much of her own feelings when she fled home she was forced to bottle up for many years. Leading to many of Kathryn's own personal issues. "You seem like a very brave lady though." Kathryn then reached her arms around the Lizbeth giving her a hug. "But for now, you just need to make sure that you are okay. Trust the adults to figure things out, and to make sure everything is okay." Normally the only physical contact Kathryn would allow with another person would be if she was getting close to attack, or the rare exceptions like when she left Kosara hold her arm. Though the feeling was a bit uncomfortable for Kathryn, she wanted to do nothing else other then to make sure that this little girl was okay. And if it was true that the goblins had been ordered to do their raiding, to exact this girl's pain into whoever gave that order physically.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Wine Caravan --> Around Town --> Honey Barn Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

So it seemed the Honey Barn would have to get cut short. Though it was a shame to do it to anyone they were getting the most, and could most likely take the hit better. On the plus side, maybe they could also use this as a chance to talk to more locals, gain their trust, and learn what they could about the place. While traveling Cecily was able to explain a bit about their missing person. This was so far the best lead the party had as far as she could tell. If they could place this Audrey maybe they could find the others? Maybe it was something simple that could be solved, or maybe it was something more extreme that is greater then anyone here could have imagined? It was hard to say, but they did have a lead. On a positive note, the town was preparing for the harvest celebration. To Kathryn these were the best kinds of events to have with large numbers of people. Lots of food, drinks, music, and overall people having a great time. Passing by some of the delicious smelling foods Kathryn wanted to reach out and toss her coin to each vendor and try a little bit of everything! Her main limitations? She was working and her work needed her undivided attention, and she was on a budget. Should this job finish up quickly, she'd stop by and try some of the local foods.

The party received no help from the local government with their shipment, now was it all to welcoming. She was starting to see why several members of their group had opted towards cutting them short. But such as it was, it went off smoothly enough. Arriving at Niel and Bob's Public house thing's went smoother. Though Kathryn wondered if the place was originally just called Bob's public house, and this Neil had joined in on the business later on by looking at the sign. The place was busy enough with the festival going on, where they were informed that there were no more private rooms left. Kathryn visibly tensed up at the idea of a common sleeping room. Though she was used to a lot of rough conditions, sleeping and trusting that many people while in such a vulnerable state made her uneasy. Then the barn was offered up. "If ya don't mind, the loft sounds rather lovely." She spoke in as much of a humbled voice as she could. Though she would definitely prefer a proper bed of some kind, she would be happy with some separation from the public.

Seeing the smiling and excited faces at the farmers market made Kathryn feel a lot better about not cutting this group of people short. A lot of them were common every day people where every commodity was taken as a wonderful pleasure and a memorable moment. "No problem my good sir." She spoke to the gentleman who seemed to be taking charge of the market. Kathryn assisted in moving the barrel into it's new home before getting ready to depart with the rest of their orders. Though expecting to be raised in royalty she did enjoy many aspects of the adventuring life. She was the boots on the ground helping people when they needed it. Sometimes it was fighting off a band of goblins, and other times it was bringing them some much loved wine. And though expensive wine wasn't Kathryn's preferred drink it brought joy to her seeing how much it excited them.

The trade market was a bit more chaotic, but Kathryn figured it was good to know where this was so that if she ever had the funds to fully upgrade her gear she may be able to find a lot of her non combat needs here. Industrial needs and maybe a musical instrument should she ever commit to that idea. But that would require funds and and time she lacked at the moment. Though it took some time to find the halfing they were to give the wine towards, while that transaction was going Kathryn took note of one of the businesses. Jacques Mallard, Silversmith. She wondered. Jewelry? Or weapons? But looking at the state of the building, it seemed in no condition to offer any services, both kinds held some interest to Kathryn. When Cecile finished up the transaction Kathryn attempted to gain her attention. "Cecile? If you don't mind me asking, what's going on with that place? The Silversmith there?" It made her wonder if maybe the place was robbed recently? Or if there was something else going on with it.

Then was their final delivery, the Honey Bun, the one that had to be cut short due to an ever so mild supply chain issue. The barn looking building which inside housed the brothel, and maybe a chance to help relations with Cecile and Lizbeth, and maybe open the door with Madame Marcie to help out there as well. Plus, lots of information traveled through brothels. If someone was to go missing, this could be a great place to find out about it and discover any other rumors that may be of use. There was clear concern over keeping the contract at hand. And Kathryn wondered if this was the best way to try and get an in for the party? Then came introductions. "My lady." Kathryn gave a short bow before leaning back up to introduce herself to Madame Marcie. "My name is Ser or Lady Kathryn Pyke. Whichever you prefer. And I'd like to open up with how sorry we are about the supply issues, and if any assistance can be provided to help easy these issues created by it to please let us know." Though Kathryn's concern wasn't necessarily helping out the brothel, it was a good in. And helping out Cecile could prove useful as well. It seemed like a good two birds with one stone situation to Kathryn.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn Pyke Human, Battle Master, Level 03 HP: 31 / 31 Armor Class: 19 Conditions:N/A N/A Location: Avonshire Township --> Wine Caravan Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The party agreed to help the poor woman. Though the party did have a bit to gain from helping her, Kathryn would have wanted too even without the offering of a place to stay. The woman had lost family, and her livelihood was endangered due to the events taken place. Had the party not arrived her situation may become a bit more precarious. Meeting Cecily did prove rather helpful as the woman not only knew of a missing persons, but now had a reason to assist the party in return. Meaning hopefully little interference from their constable friend. She seemed thankful for Kathryn's subtle attempt to explain the situation. Another area that wasn't her strong suit, but she tried to make up for it by staying on the side of compassion. What did turn out to be an issue was that there was now not enough wine to go around, and it was up to the party to decide who got short changed. Kathryn heard the places and thinking about it, she really didn't want to short change anyone, but it was unavoidable. Preferably picking somewhere that was getting more then one barrel would be preferable. There was the government building, and... "Honey Barn?" Kathryn spoke with a questioning tone, before it registered to her that they were talking about a brothel. "....oh...." Kathryn was more then familiar with them. When she was really young Kathryn would be left at a couple while Ser Lucas picked up work where he couldn't bring Kathryn along. At the time though she didn't realize it was a brothel, but it wasn't hard to figure out as the years went on.

There seemed to be a pretty strong sentiment to stiff the municipal building held by Kosara and Marita. Hugh seemed to favor short changing the Farmer's market. Kosara put up a decent argument for the government building, and Hugh gave a decent reasoning for the farmers market. with the Honey Barn being the runner up. Though they all had points, leaving any party with nothing seemed wrong, leaving either the municipal building or the brothel in Kathryn's mind. Hugh had a solid point on already getting on the nerves of the local authorities, and while trying to be discrete about their true mission that could be problematic. "I see the logic on cutting back for the municipal building, but Hugh brings up a good point. We're already at odds with the Constable. And having more obstacles with local authorities would only make it worse. But I think leaving none for any one group could only hurt us. A group getting totally cut off is more likely to be uncooperative then a group that loses only a portion of what they were supposed to get. With the Honey Barn getting three barrels they seem like they can take the hit better then the other groups. And something tells me that the patrons main goals are not to do with the wine they are drinking." Though she imagined the municipal staff could deal with it better, she figured the patrons of the Honey Barn could do with either another brand or something else to drink for the time being. Maybe they could try to get an additional shipment in sooner then planned to make up for it? "Unless there's context we're missing and the other groups are either able to take the bit better or will be easier to smooth things over with." If she knew more about the local groups it may make it easier to decide. But numbers alone, the brothel seemed like it could take the hit the best. She was open to changing her outlook though if Cecile had any additional information to include. Or if it turned out one of the groups were more openly hostile then the others, she figured she could support cutting them short if need be.

There was various conversations going on that Kathryn pondered while walking along side the wagons. Though she enjoyed riding, she was in town now and would rather be able to move and react quickly if need be. She picked up a commotion from Kosara while walking and looked over just in time to see the wagon making a sharp turn. "Oh shit!" Kathryn jumped a bit only realizing afterwards she wasn't in any real danger of being hit. It appeared another wagon had cut them off, and now the mule was distracted on a cabbage wagon. Kosara got the situation under control quick enough. As the wagon passed the cabbage cart Kathryn was quick to follow quickly saying "Sorry 'bout that!" Kathryn rushed by with a bit of embarrassment as she hurried to catch back up. As the tall woman did so she contemplated about their wine problem. Though context of the locals would help, at the end of the day it was a numbers issue for Kathryn. Maybe one of the groups had some of the wine still in stock? So they may be able to take the hit a bit better? That could change things. Or if one of the groups was outwardly abrasive and aggressive. Or just outright unpleasant people to tolerate. She could justify it in that case too. But she lacked the knowledge sadly. Hugh did ask for some clarification, so maybe she'd change her mind then.