Tavern Brawls S06WK02

As she and Selena continued to walk down the dusty road to the next farm, Cantrip couldn’t help but brace herself for another dead end.  Over the past few days, they had visited 15 farms, all of which had the same story to tell:  On the morning in question, there had been a flash of light from the chicken coops and/or their storage areas.  When they investigated, they had found all of their eggs gone, but bundles of arrows sitting in their place.  Upon a closer look at the arrows, the women found that they all bore a small brand indicating they were made specifically for the Brawl.  Although rangers as a rule made their own arrows, the Brawl commissioned these arrows for use due specifically to the amount needed for the various rounds of play and not wanting to ask rangers to use up their own supplies.  At every single farm they had visited so far, they had only found these arrows.

The friends crested the top of the latest hill to look down into a green valley with fields of wheat and beans surrounding a modest farmhouse.  A few pigs meandered around a small pen while several chickens could be heard in a nearby coop.  As they drew nearer to the homestead, they could hear someone using a hammer in the coop, so they steered towards the chicken house in hopes of talking to the owner.  They arrived near the building just in time to hear a dull *thud* and see a woman in her early 30s dressed in dirty black clothes stumble out of the building, shaking her hand violently.  She shouted a few words that would have been disallowed at the Brawl, then came up abruptly as she saw Cantrip and Selena.

“Fer cryin’ out loud!  Don’t sneak up on a gal like that,” she exclaimed.  “It’s bad enough that my father smashed up the chicken house and then ran off to that fight thing in town without fixing it.  I don’t need a couple of vagabonds out here trying to steal more of my stuff too!”

Cantrip raised an eyebrow.  “As if anyone would want to steal this junk anyway,” she began.  “Maybe you need to find a real farmer to take care of this place.”

The other woman put her hands on her hips defiantly.  “Stuck-up townie.”

“Country hick,” Cantrip responded.

“Witch!”

“Don’t you know it!”

The farmer was the first to crack a smile as she and Cantrip approached and then embraced in a fierce hug.  Selena stood still, dumbstruck.

Cantrip glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw her friend’s expression.  “Sorry, Selena!  I guess you haven’t met Kevin’s girlfriend, Vala.  Selena, Vala.  Vala, Selena.”

Vala started to hold out her hand to shake Selena’s but abruptly stuck her thumb in mouth, pulled it out again, and shook it a few more times.  “Sorry, My hammer had a bit of a statement to make with my thumb.  What brings you two out here, anyway?”

Selena stepped into the conversation.  “Something strange happened in town a few days ago and all of the eggs in the area seemed to appear at The Two Brothers while the arrows they were using all disappeared.  All of the farms in the area reported the same thing.”

Vala began nodding as Selena described the situation in town.  She gestured at a small pile of arrows sitting just outside of the chicken house.  “The eggs all appeared at The Two Brothers? And all of the other farms got those too?”

“Don’t forget the chicken,” Cantrip interjected.

Selena nodded.  “That’s right.  There was also a live chicken found near the fight, but Chris said they didn’t have any.”

“Actually, I’m missing one,” Vala stated.  “It was here a few days ago, but it disappeared the same day my father made that big hole in the chicken coop.  I figured it must have gotten out and taken by a fox, but maybe it was the same one.”

Giving her a quizzical look, Selena asked, “But how would it have gotten into town?”

Vala shrugged.  “I don’t know.  My father comes up with the weirdest stuff sometimes.  I wouldn’t put it past him to be involved somehow.  But, I don’t know where he’s staying or anything like that.  I tried to get him to stay here while he was in the area, but he refused and said he wanted to be ‘closer to the action’.”

“So, your father doesn’t live here with you?” Cantrip asked Vala.

Vala scrunched up her nose a bit.  “Ew.  No way.  He comes to visit occasionally, but he lives up north in Tristatus.  I love him to pieces, but he’s a bit eccentric.  So an occasional visit is best for both of us.”

With that last statement, Vala started backing towards the chicken house.  “I’d invite you ladies in for a drink, but I need to finish fixing this mess.  Feel free to take the arrows with you.”  She walked over to the small building, then turned back to traveling partners.  “One more thing, Philomena.  Please tell Kevin that he needs to take a break from that event and take me out somewhere nice.  And in the meantime, have him come by and fix my wagon.”

—–

While the women were investigating the local farms, Fletcher remained at The Two Brothers, trying to keep a handle on security on his own while following up on the chicken and eggs incidents.

For Relax, the poor thief who had her arm dismembered in the explosion, it had been a remarkably good past few days.  The clerics had been unable to reattach her arm, but they did mend her wound as only they could.  When they recommended that she withdraw from the rest of the Brawl to learn to compensate with her other arm, she had just winked at them and said, “Are you kidding?  And waste this opportunity to take advantage of the sympathy from my opponents?  This sucks more than I can say, but there is no way I’m NOT milking this.”  Impressively, at least to Fletch, she went on to win her match against Daemonic Tulip  The ranger smiled as he remembered her teammates carrying her out of the arena as if she had just won the entire tournament.

Most of the matches were low-key events this round, though he made another mental note to keep an eye on Ms Anne Thrope, who seemed to be compiling a souvenir collection from her opponents.  He was also reminded to stay away from a few of the teams when possible lest he begin hearing everything in rhyme.

Fletcher looked at a set of viewing portals in the corner.  He was troubled to learn that two of the teams appeared to have gone off-site for their match.  Keepers of Trogdor and The Crotch of the Chimera had never appeared in their designated area downstairs, yet runners had been supplying information for the scoreboard.  Matches were clearly getting played, but this was highly unorthodox.

The scoreboard was itself becoming something of a story.  Every day, a new disaster seemed to find it.  Chris had been putting it on a stand next to the door, but it kept getting tipped over by patrons.  He tried hanging it on the wall, but explosions from the wizards rattled the walls enough to knock it off.  Lunapig herself had come into town to ensure the scoreboard was able to be used properly and had taken it upon herself to clean up the chips and dents.  She then decided to stay in town to watch her sponsored brawler, Tiny Toque, defeat another cleric by the name of Altar Boy.

As to the eggs that had replaced the official Brawl arrows, Kevin and Chris were in the process of compensating all of the local farmers that Cantrip and Selena had discovered were missing their supplies.  No one yet knew how they had gotten there, only that Kevin had found some inventive ways to use them. Fletch had to draw the line when the young tinkerer had suggested using them as projectiles in an egg-launching contraption he named ‘Yolks of Fury’.Technically, the rules stated that Brawlers could only use tools and weapons pre-approved by the rules committee.  Realistically, no one wanted to smell rotting eggs all over the walls until the end of the tournament.  The rangers had consented to use their own arrows for this past round until the tournament supply was recovered.  But the question of what had happened and why was still outstanding 

The chicken was also still a mystery.  No one matching the appearance of the long-coated man had appeared, but the heat of the past few days made wearing a coat entirely impractical and the rest of his appearance had been obscured by the fight and the coat itself.  The man of the hour could be sitting right next to Fletch and he would never know it.

Frustrated, Fletcher turned to see his partners walk in.  They searched the area until they spotted Kevin, then weaved their way through the throng of people to him.  After a few words, he made a beeline for the door, stopped, backtracked to his office, then left again with toolbox in hand.

Fletcher pointed in his direction as Cantrip and Selena found their way to the old ranger.  Cantrip simply said, “Vala,” and he nodded knowingly.  As they grabbed some ale from a nearby rolling cart, the mage and rogue relayed their findings to him, including the suspicious actions of Vala’s visiting father.  Normally, Fletcher would also be highly suspicious of the timing, but the Brawl activities made “conspicuous timing” meaningless as most of the people in town right now were visiting.  Instead he filed it away in his head to use as more information presented itself.  For now, he had to report in.

Fletcher reached into his pocket and flashed his unique coin to his companions, pointed at himself, then at the door.  Cantrip nodded.  “We’ll keep an eye on things.  Say ‘hi’ to the general for us.”

Fletcher nodded and headed to the door.  At least he won’t get yelled at this time.