12th of Birds
Realizing that they may get in over their heads, the Reclaimants decided to avoid doing any jobs directly for the Bogsmen or Bards guild and instead went to a local tavern, the Dying Mule, in search of other opportunities. On their way, they passed by a theater that was putting on a play of "Achyleus and Calypso". Having read the play before, Tanythe implored the group to see it with her, which they all agreed to after they made some money.
At the Dying Mule, Aurent helped the proprietor, Davus, lift a heavy keg and found out that there was something going on at the race tracks, many of the horses had fallen ill. Additionally, several caravans had gone missing west of the city. The party decided to check out the racetracks first. Upon arriving there they discovered that the racetracks were closed and people were not happy about it. After some convincing by Tanythe and Aurent to go see the play instead, they managed to disperse the angry mob. They spoke with the ticketmaster, Tikanus Boothus, and discovered that horses from every team except the Oranges had fallen ill.
While walking to the stables, Aurent noticed some blood under the stands and Leith noticed a raven that was being ostracized by the other birds. The party went and spoke with each team captain in turn and discovered that only the horses that had been fed the race mix had fallen ill. They took samples and Tanythe and Jude went to a local apothecary to see if they could identify a toxin. Leith and Aurent stayed at the tracks to keep an eye on the teams. They kept getting distracted by the raven, but Leith convinced himself that it was probably just a particularly stinky bird. They also noticed that the leader of the Orange team kept nervously peeking out the window.
At the apothecary, Tanythe learned that the feed did have some kind of poison in it, but it was not magical and likely did not come from a plant. She returned to the racetracks and her and Leith went to question the team leader of Orange, Simicus. After some good cop/bad cop questioning, they learned that Simicus believed he was being framed. He was originally from Cosa and was affiliated with a racing team that had gang ties. Every day for the last few weeks he had woken up to a carrot in his bed. Upon closer inspection, they realized the carrots ahd soot marks on them, as if they had been dropped down a chimney.
Leith's suspicion of the stinky raven grew and he marched outside to confront it. To his surprise, the raven responded. Without much pressure, the raven informed them that it was a fiend and it had poisoned the other teams feed because it loved the color orange and wanted to see the Orange team win. Leith and Tanythe pondered what to do with this information.
TLDR: Never trust a stinky raven.
Radical quote of the session: "We aren't mercenaries, but the type of work that mercenaries do, we could accomplish that kind of work."-Leith
Fame: 12 Level 2 XP: +10=550