Session 18 - So much RP

After securing the old lady to the bench seat in the boat the party decide to press on to town and hand her to the authorities. As they pull into the docks near the wet trout, they are met by Captain of the militia Imdra Arlaggath.

Captian Arlaggath sees the prisoner and recognizes her "You...I have seen you around the town" The party explain what happened, that they found the remains of the fishermen.

The Captain signals to the Wet Trout and four guards come out and take away the old lady, Throt issues a warning that she is not what she appears to be, and the Captain instructs the guards to proceed with caution. As they walk away the party hears her offering the guards gold, to which the tell her to shut up. 

The Captain explains that she cannot reward them in gold, but has a magical item from the recently executed wizard but she is not completely sure of its function. She hands a grey fabric bag to Throt, and says if they cant work it out to try the speaker at the Town hall who may be able to help them. They ask if the Captain speaks dwarvish which she does not but can get someone who does, she heads to the wet trout and returns with a stout dwarf, they hand him the three pages they found in the camp and he reads them out, they offer no real insights into anything and appear to be from an explorer's journal. 

Throt looks at the bag which appears empty. The others discuss if they should stick their hands in there, and Etch wonders if he should stick Mochi's hand in there, Throt however just sticks his hand in, and feels a fuzzy ball, he pulls it out and it has the appearance of a tribble, Throt notices it has very little weight until he tries to move it, and eventually decides to wear it as a hat. 

Etch and Nox also grab the furballs out of the bag and hold them and as they are checking them out, Throt drops his which causes it to disappear and a giant rat appears, ready to accept his commands. 

Etch throws his down and an Elk appears, and Nox gets a Direwolf. Mochi sticks his hand in to get one and the bag is empty.

The party decide to head to the town hall and have a chat with the speaker, as this town was one where one of the murders occurred they decide to see what the speaker has to say about that. They enter and are greeted by one of the speakers clerks, who asks their business, and they say they would like to discuss some sensitive matters with the speaker, to which she heads in to ask him if he will grant them audience. 

He peeks out the door and sees who they are and immediately asks them inside. "Ah our heroes have returned, thank you for finding the remains of the fishermen. tell me did you happen to find anything else out there?" Throt shuffles nervously hiding the pot on his back, and they too and fro about what he is looking for before he tells them "The Woman you bought in offered us a cook pot which would feed the hungry of icewind dale in exchange for her freedom, she said that it may be in your possession...."

Eventually they admit to having the pot, and the speaker tips in a gallon of water to see the effects after a few mins the water turns into a steaming hot stew, which he scoops a mug off and starts to eat. Etch also takes a mug but waits to see if it has an effect on the speaker before he starts to eat it. 

The speaker offers them 500Gp for the pot. They discuss this in private and decide that they would like to right to re-purchase at any time, they discuss it with the speaker and negotiate a 700Gp fee, and right of re-purchase with 4 ten days notice. They establish that the speaker is going to use this to give food to all who need it free of charge and his intentions are noble, but driven by a need to keep tax payers alive to pay taxes. 

They settle the deal and the speaker calls for his clerk and asks him to fetch Prudence to get the gold for the party, and to send word for 4 guards to be issued from the Militia to protect the cauldron.

The party ask him about the murder of Thielin and determine that he is somewhat cagey in his response, and that he claims that Thielin was a business acquaintance and one of three trappers he used to maintain enough furs for the people of Easthaven. He says that the murder was terrible business, and that he has no reason to suspect that it was one of the other two trappers as their MO would be more to take him out in the wilds not in his house. 

He suggests speaking with Captain Arlaggath as she handled the investigation. The party collect their gold and head to the Wet Trout to find the Captain, where they find a gathering of people drinking to their fallen townsfolk, and fellow fishermen. The Captain thanks them again, and asks if the speaker has found them yet, he was seeking them out about a pot or cauldron. They confirm that he has, and ask her about the murder. She doesn't have much insight into what happened, murders are frequent as the townspeople fight over what few resources the winter has to offer. She says that Thielin and Speaker Waylan were quite close, and isn't sure what the real story was there but she didn't have any real leads or plans to investigate further. 

They ask about Torggas and determine that they were in town around the time of the murder and they they were headed to Good Mead and likely on to Dougans Hole. They Party remember the Duagars note about someone living on the frozen ferry at Easthaven and decide to head there in the morning.