The Neutral Evil Milk Hotel

Summary
The group is attacked by a group of paid mercenaries but survive the assassination attempt and then procede to interrogate locals with the hopes of learning about Rodrik's death.

Location
Trunau, Ramble House

Episode Details
An assassin comes in the night and attacks Barron Ashpeak as he's waking up with a glowing, liquid blade.

Gelabrous Finn commands the assassin to jump out the window but another is climbing through the other window by Gormlaith Kall. A third assassin appears and attacks Lorc Irontusk, but misses.

A fourth assassin climbs through the window and attacks Gormli.

The group furiously fights for their lives, Barron at one point going unconscious and being brought back by Gelabrous's Channel Divinity.

Lorc grapples one of the assassins and demands to know who she is and where she comes from and the woman admits she was hired by a half-orc. She says she was hired the morning before by a man covered in facial tattoos which looked liked scars. He didn't say his name, only gave her the money to kill the group.

She lives in Freedom Town not too far away, and was paid four gold pieces for the job.

Gelabrous demands she hands over the money she was given, go to jail and they'll let her live. They try to figure out how to figure out who the man is but Lorc explains that half-orcs have an obsession with getting tattooed so the facial tattoos might not narrow it down much.

Lorc takes the surviving assassin in to be held by the militia and hands her off to a patrolman.

(Matthew leaves at this point and Gormli isn't heard from for the rest of the episode)

The next morning the group talks out what to do next and decide on the smith and go to see Sara Morninghawk. Lorc tells Sara that Rodrik was murdered and she is surprised to learn this, and answers their questions about the Hope Knife receipt.

Sara explains she couldn't remember if Rodrik himself came in to place the order, but she'd started the knife and then passed it on to one of her apprentices, Urnsul who up and quit the other day. Sara hired Urnsul about a month before, she took pity on the new half-orc in town, but then Unrsul just up and left.

Sara thought he'd just lost his Hope Knife, and Lorc speculates that perhaps if Rodrik had been engaged, and they had swapped knives, and if he lost the one he'd been given and felt bad about it he might have a replacement made. Sara is intrigued by the idea Rodrik was engaged but the group assures her it's just a hypothetical.

Leaving Sara, the foursome go to the boarding house where Brinya lives. She opens the door to them, obviously upset, and Lorc tells her that they believe Rodrik was murdered and she welcomes them into her room.

Brinya tells them they'd been seeing each other for months and Rodrik recently proposed with his late mother's ring, but they still kept their relationship a secret fearing his father's disapproval. She tried to be patient and understanding with his desire for secrecy but started think he was cowardly and it became a source of contention between them.

If he loved her so much, why was he so afraid to tell everyone about their relationship?

Then he got distracted by an investigation Rodrik called his greatest work but he never told Brinya anything about it. Then Jagrin, his father, found out and berated Rodrik for getting engaged to a half-orc. Brinya tells the group he was an artist, that he wrote poems and plays; Gelabrous copies the writings to look at later.

The guys get confirmation that Brinya and Rodrik exchanged knives and when Brinya looks at it she tells them it's not the one she gave him. At this point she tells them about Rodrik's journal but she doesn't know where it is, thinking it might be at the Ramble House and or the sanctuary.

Barron promises they're trying to get her the revenge she deserves and the justice she needs.

Loot

 * 4 potions of cure light wounds
 * 4 sets of leather armor
 * 1 smoke stick
 * Light crossbow
 * Shortsword
 * Thieves tools
 * Baryl, a gem worth 50 gold
 * Tube for a liquid blade

Gelabrous

 * Command
 * Channel Positive Energy
 * Channel Positive Energy

Gormlaith

 * Ear Piercing Scream
 * Mage Armor
 * Evil Eye

Barron

 * Up Close and Deadly
 * Up Close and Deadly

Inflicted

 * 4 - Gormli
 * 16 - Barron
 * 26 - Lorc

Taken

 * 11 - Barron, 1 dex damage, unconcious
 * 6 - Gormli, 1 dex damage
 * 8 - Lorc, 1 dex damage
 * 10 - Gelabrous

Enemies Defeated
2 assassin - Lorc

1 assassin - Barron

1 assassin captured