Plots Behind Plots

"I spent so much getting that mead ready to sell but I just couldn't get the aphrodisiac aspect out. If you think it's bad now, it was ten times worse when I first started brewing it." We had Asmundr in the mayor's office with Kay and the Mayor. We couldn't find Sundri.

"When I first presented it to the Union they rejected it because of that but I didn't want to give up. I'd put too much of my life into it. Now that the effect is minimal, the quartermaster wouldn't give me another chance." He said.

Like hell its effects were minimal. I almost had a threesome. Wait, why am I mad about that?

"If I could just get some adventurers to put a good word in, I'd be fine. But you lot don't pass through here very often so I had to come up with a way to bring more of your kind to the village to sample my wares." He said.

"Okay but where did you get the potion from? They aren't normal potions." I asked.

"I got them through fate. There was a traveler passing through that sold them to me for cheap. Said he hated being an alchemist and just wanted to get rid of them. Said he couldn't use them himself since adventurers would come hunt him down if he did. That's when it all clicked." He said.

Thelora and I shared a meaningful stare. There was no way a wandering alchemist was just going to cheaply sell this kind of potion in an out of the way village.

"Those brothers had been working for me and I knew that they would do anything for coin. I told them not to kill anyone but just to scare off any adventurers that came so that more would come and give me a better chance to get the attention of the Union quartermaster." He said.

"How exactly did you think it would end for them? The quest was to kill the trolls." Lariss was full of indignation.

"Well once we thought the adventurers were getting too tough, we'd stop. Even if stronger adventures came early on, like you did, who'd really care if those brats died. I thought it would be better for everyone if they just died in the end." He said.

"Did you have anyone else helping you out?" I asked.

"No, I didn't want people talking. I was worried enough that the brothers would say something." He replied.

"We'll keep him locked up at the inn until morning and deliver him to Baron Teinnroth for judgement." Kay said.

By the time we were finished the festival was starting to wrap up and we just retired to our rooms at the inn. I set up some wards and we left a guard outside his door to make sure he didn't run. In the morning we found him dead. Thelora found the window had been forced open from the outside and my wards had been deactivated.

Since we didn't have to take him to the Baron, there was nothing else keeping us in the village. Later that day we left to cheers from those that saw us off. This was my first time taking a quest and interacting with the people being affected. Lariss let me know that this can be a common thing and that I shouldn't let it go to my head. But I noticed she lit up and waved enthusiastically to every cheer.

After a day of travel I brought something up to the group.

"I think I'm going to take my time heading back. Maybe do some hunting along the way." I said.

"Really, I'm sure there are more quests available. Borhildr is really good at lining them up for us." Kay said.

"Ah let him do what he wants. If we all come back together, she'll just try to get us to do a difficult quest. If he takes an extra week we get an extra week off." Sundri said.

"I'm actually going to stay with Wilmaer. There should be some jordr deer in the area and I wouldn't mind getting a pelt or two." Lariss said.

"Well that shouldn't be too bad. We can take an extra few days getting back." Kay said.

"Don't you think the Union needs to know about the Troll Transformation potion? Someone needs to let them know in case there's more of it out there." Thelora said.

"You're right. Sundri and I will head back to alert the Union of the danger. If you can get me a nice rack off one of them I'd be appreciative. I've been wanting to put something over my mantel." Kay said.

In the morning Thelora handed over four vials of the potion and the two of them heading back to Torinheim. Kay didn't seem to remember that we had six of them. The three of us then set off the road and made our way towards Baron Teinnroth castle. Two days later we arrived.

In that time Thelora gave me a scroll with a psychic spell on it that required a minimum of two motes. The spell put out a field that helped people ignore me. It helped cover when the Cloaking spell didn't fully hide someone. It only worked on sentient beings, not most monsters or beasts. This helped explain why she was so good at hiding from people.

We hid our horses away from the castle and made our way towards a weak point that Thelora had scouted out for us. It was a partially cloudy night with Antona in its new moon phase and Lasna in its last quarter. This time we entered through an unmaintained drainage pipe with all of us in dark cloaks and masks. It was not a pleasant experience.

Once inside we found the castle sparsely patrolled and the wards were fairly simple in most places. After an hour of sneaking around we found a room in the lower levels that was highly warded. Thelora investigated it for nearly 20 minutes before admitting that there was a good chance she'd set off the wards if she tried to deactivate them.

So we made our way upstairs until we found another door with higher than normal wards but these were weaker than the ones below and Thelora was able to deactivate them in a few minutes. This room looked to be the Baron's study with numerous book shelves, a desk, and a table with maps on it. The largest map had a number of locations marked on it that correspond to the troll attacks.

Lariss was our lookout while Thelora went through the desk and I looked through the items on the table. The large map was the only one that seemed to have anything to do with the trolls. The rest had to do with public works that the Baron was undertaking.

"I think I found something." Thelora said and I joined her.

It was a small black leather notebook. In it were the dates of the troll attacks along with a few notes. Some of them were,

~~'Subjects displayed no ill effects after transformation.'~~

~~'Subject one's scar seems to be healing little by little even when not transformed.'~~

~~'The damage to the bakery is extensive but they retained enough control not to kill anyone.'~~

~~'Based on observation the first set of adventurers would have been sufficient for three normal trolls but were no match for these transformed trolls.'~~

~~'Second group of adventurers noticed the first observer. First observer has been eliminated. Moving to the second observer.'~~

~~'Second group of adventurers are all C ranked with some nearly B ranked. Subjects held on for a time but lost to numbers and skills.'~~

~~'Brewer has been compromised but has no relevant information and will be eliminated.'~~

~~'Second group of adventurers has left the area. Study to be ended and all material to be sent off when instructions are received.'~~

"Looks like we have him." I said.

"Do we?" Thelora frowned.

I was going to argue my point but realized that we didn't actually have much. Who were we that someone would believe what we said? While we had some evidence that we could take, it didn't specifically implicate the Baron and he could easily deny it. We weren't operating within a legal system similar to the one on Earth. Hell, even on Earth people in power could easily get a way with things like this.

"No, we don't." I said.

"What have you found? If it's not enough, let's look elsewhere." Lariss said.

We explained what we had found and why it didn't really matter. Even if we could get someone that had the authority to investigate him, he was far away from any city and would have the time to cover up his crimes. Even if he was in the lower nobility, he'd have resources to protect himself against any accusations we could level at him.

"So what do we do now?" Lariss asked.

"That depends, do we take justice into our own hands or just let it go for now?" Thelora didn't seem to care if we took either of the paths she suggested.

As I thought it over my thumb was rubbing against the cover of the notebook and I felt a very slight indent in the leather. Tracing my thumb over the area I knew it was a purposeful image and not just an imperfection. I created more light with my fire mote but still couldn't see anything. There was a nagging feeling that I was familiar with the image.

"I think it's a bird." Thelora said when I let her examine it.

When Lariss examined it her eyes widened. "We need to get out of here."

"You know what it is?" I asked.

"It's an ice thresher. These people are revolutionaries and are a danger to the north and the kingdom." Lariss said.

Back when I was doing my first quest in the sewers, I found a number of secret rooms built by a group that used the ice thresher as their image over a hundred years ago. They tried to overthrow the duke in favor of his sister. While it was doubtful that they were the same group, they would only use this image if they had a similar goal.

"Let's go." I put the map and the notebook in my Storage Ring and we made our way out of the castle.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the items I had taken. If I handed them over to the right person there would be an investigation because of the imagery. But who would that be and how could I do it without making me an enemy of the organization that was behind all of this? For now I planned to just hold on to them. Maybe when we got back to Torinheim I'd have a better idea.

**End of the Troll Hunting Arc**