Holding back Tai, who was nearly ready to explode, our adventurers watched helplessly as the man was strung up and dropped where he choked to death. When the cooling corpse stopped twitching, the crowd slowly began to disperse. Downhearted, our heroes went off to bed to sleep off the image of the hanging man in the streets.
The following morning, all were awakened by the sound of a heavy handed knock on their bedroom door. Rykasha answered the knock and was confronted by four armed deputies who told them that they were performing a door-to-door search for a man with a scar. When it was determined that the room was not harboring the fugitive, the guards explained what was going on, and asked for the party’s cooperation. Our heroes carefully responded that they had no interest in helping search for the fugitive, but that they would report him if seen. With that, the armed deputies left to knock on the door just down the hall.
After the search had ended, everyone got together and they decided on what they were going to do for the day. Elwyn and the Ranger went off together while Killian stayed behind to guard the room and their belongings. Rykasha, Alton and Tai left the room in search of the Mage to find out about selling some potions of healing.
Lucious, the mage, explained that he had found some potential buyers, but he couldn’t get the prices that he had originally quoted him. The mage was willing to pay Alton four times the cost of the potion, plus the cost of ingredients. Seeming that this was a fair amount, Alton agreed and chose to be paid in gold. With the ingredients needed, he then set off towards the Inn to begin the lengthy brewing process.
Rykasha and Tai set off towards the newly reconditioned Jail to see about the man named Jebediah. The meeting didn’t go quite as pleasantly as hoped. They talked for a while about the town, and what was happening, but all conversation was kept very light. Mention was made of what exactly a Preacher was, and Jeb told him that he acted on the law of the book. He then set down a very old looking leather bound book inscribed with a golden cross. He called it a “genuine pre-rifts bible”. They tried to question him further on what that meant, but he was very evasive.
They then questioned him about Roedyn. Jebediah told the two that he had trained Skinny Roe in about everything that he knows. As far as he was concerned Skinny was a full-fledged Preacher. He said that Skinny had left north over the hills, and then east through the pass of Deja. Jeb warned them that it was coming fast on to Trandmoss season when the sandstorms were at their peak. When Jeb asked the pair what their interest was, they were completely honest with him and told him the whole story. Jeb looked at the documents from the king and raised an eyebrow towards the party. Beleiving the documents to be a forgery, and suspecting the party of foul play, he confronted them about it and finished by warning them that if Skinny were to be hurt, he would hunt them down. Leaving the quarters of this unpredictable man, they set off back to the Inn to see how Alton was fairing.
Four days passed with Alton brewing non-stop with his potions and the rest of the party playing indoor games of bones and cards. They tried their best to lay low and not attract the attention of any around them. When the potions had been finally concocted, he delivered them to the mage, and was paid promptly. The party questioned Lucious about what the term “genuine pre-rifts” meant, but the mage was unable to help them. They also asked him of the whereabouts of the secret tunnel that had been mentioned all over town. Lucious confirmed that such a tunnel did exist, but was unable to tell them where it was.
The party then began thinking about where the tunnel would be. They went to the lake at the north end of town to try to find out where its source was located at, hoping that it would give an indication of the tunnel. After spending an hour or so at the lake, they determined that it was fed from some type of natural spring underground, but were unable to find out anything more about the tunnel. The next place they tried was the Stables of Jack Hubert. They spoke to him at length mentioning careful hints and finally were able to determine that Jack was playing dumb and did know the whereabouts of the tunnel. After some more general hints were presented, Jack took them aside and told them that the tunnel is very expensive to use right now, and after some careful negotiations decided that it would cost the party more than three hundred gold to pass. The party paid the man the gold and left to gather their supplies. Without stopping to tell anyone where they had gone, they quickly assembled at Jack’s stables and fled down the secret tunnel heading north from LoBan. Nobody looked back.