Tavern Brawls S06PRE05

Fletcher and Selena sat on a small bench outside of the Hall of Clerics while Cantrip continued to converse with the healer just inside.  After the incident, the three of them had brought Nudeltulpe here as quickly as they could in the hopes that something could be done for him.  That had been 8 hours ago and no word had come yet from the clerics.  Fletch’s mind bounced between frantic panic at allowing this to happen to the Brawlmaster and sheer exhaustion as the events of the day and evening caught up to him.  Selena had rested her head on Fletch’s shoulder and he was in the process of nodding off himself when Cantrip came out with one of the clerics.

“He will live,” the rather young healer began.  “It is fortunate that the patient had petitioned weeks ago for the cleric guild to send some of our senior members to arrive early and begin preparing for the upcoming event.  Without their skillful intervention, we would not have been able to save him with our otherwise limited resources.”

Fletch looked at the cleric, pointed inside with his left hand and then arced his right arm up and across the sky, tracing the path of the sun.  ‘How long will he be here?’

The cleric understood the ranger perfectly.  “We don’t yet know,” she answered.  “This was a severe injury and our practices, even for our most skilled clerics, can only heal a patient so far.  After that, the body must heal itself.  It could be days or even weeks before he is rested enough to resume his normal routine.”

Selena’s head dropped.  “We’re going to have to tell them to postpone the Brawl, aren’t we?”

The cleric fumbled through her clinical robes.  “I almost forgot.  Your friend has been in and out of consciousness as we’ve been tending to him.  During one of his more lucid periods, he scribbled a note on a piece of paper.  I hope you know what to do with it.  Now, I must get back inside.”

The trio thanked the young woman as she went back into the building and read the note that Nudeltulpe had provided.

“The Brawl must go on.”

—–

“Have you completely lost your mind?!”

General Grindstone glared at the three investigators sitting in front of him, but directed the bulk of his outrage at the man sitting between the two women.

“Let me see if I understand this correctly, Fletcher.  First, you revealed yourself to these two local residents.  Second, you roped them into helping you on this dangerous assignment.  May I remind you that they are NOT even rangers??  Third, you revealed yourself to MORE members of the town in order to carry on a covert operation-”

“Actually, sir,” interjected Cantrip, “we didn’t tell anyone about any of this.  We said it was for Brawl security.”

The general bristled.  “Oh, does that make it better?  You still ended up bringing the attention of any criminal element in town right to you.  So much for being covert, right?”

Cantrip’s head dropped back down.

“And finally,” Grindstone continued through clenched teeth, “you allow the Brawlmaster himself to be critically injured during the first major event of the Brawl.  Am I missing anything?!”

Selena raised her hand awkwardly.  “I did find something odd on Nudletulpe in the community center,” she squeaked.  “It must have accidentally fallen into my hand when we bumped into each other.  Do you know what it is?”

Her magical friend elbowed her rather harshly.

As the general continued to stare at the young rogue, she reached into the many pockets of her tunic and pulled out a mostly white glove.  She handed it over to the general, who took it with a mixture of curiosity and incredulity evident in his face.  It was made of a somewhat firm yet flexible material and mostly held its shape without a hand in it.  Grindstone passed the unusual glove over to his aide, who took it away to examine it more closely.

“I’ve never seen material like that.  It may or may not be connected,” the general started, softening his tone.  “Perhaps the three of you can figure out the purpose of this glove, or maybe another like it, and prevent an even greater catastrophe.”

Selena and Cantrip both raised their heads to look questioningly at Grindstone.  “Yes, I said the three of you.”  He sighed audibly, “It is highly unusual to allow non-rangers to take such an active role in an investigation, but it’s obvious you have been valuable assets.  I hereby grant you field commissions for the duration of this mission.”

Selena grinned widely.  “Do we get fancy coins too?”

The general stared at her while pointing to the door.

—–

Fletch, Cantrip, and Selena continued to investigate the site and question some of the attendees of the Draft, but found themselves with more dead-ends than they cared to admit.  Making their task more difficult, the town began to fill for the Brawl.  Within a few days of the Draft, participants from some of the closer villages had begun arriving while those traveling from a farther distance started coming into town by the end of the week.  Many came not only with their supplies, but with their families in tow.

Bowing to the inevitable conclusion that any evidence they could find was ruined and that any witnesses would be preoccupied with the newcomers, the three investigators agreed that they would need to change their tact to observation and hope they could catch any new threats before they did any damage.

As they began to track the travelers coming into the village, a small amount of panic settled into the back of each of their minds.  If they could not prevent an incident (which none of them believed to be an accident) in a small room with a handful of people, how could they possibly guard against a larger attack in a tavern full of trained combatants?