Fire at the Broken Keel

Emeline muttered to herself as she got off the windrider when it landed in Ratchet. She didn't like this recent turn of events at all. Putting Tivak at trial... Sure, her story worked out just fine, even that troll girl would confirm that she was telling the truth. But Tivak wouldn't, and she was sure that little creep would do all he could to take her with him if he was going down. Something had to be done to stop this.

She got on her horse and exited the town to the north. Riding around it in a big circle she then approached the Broken Keel from the south. She pulled up the hood on the dark robe she had put on even more, making sure to hide her face. If someone saw her, they would probably assume that the dark robed undead was a member of the House. At least she hoped they would. But she wasn't to be seen at all, if things went as planned. Silently she moved closer to the Keel, peering inside. She was lucky, Vypra was still here. Cleaning and preparing for the next evening's pub night, no doubt. Why did she have to be the one that was collecting evidence against Tivak? Had it been someone else she could have merely killed the person and destroyed the evidence. But Vypra was far too good to have alive and as an ally, she couldn't just kill her. No, she had to do something a little bit more creative instead...

She took a closer look at the troll, she seemed to be tired. Not very strange, it was late and she had probably worked hard on collecting evidence during the day. But this was just perfect. Keeping her eyes fixed on the troll she muttered a spell. She grimaced at the strain of breaking into the trolls mind and taking over, but it worked. She didn't want to know how it would have been, had Vypra been alert and awake. But now she had to get to work, the spell wouldn't last for long. Looking around the keel through the troll's eyes, she quickly found the notebook she had been writing down evidence in. She picked it up and threw it on one of the beds. She also picked up the bottle of ink standing next to it. Grabbing a tuft of hay from the bed and using it as a crude brush, she wrote on the wall in big letters; "Stay out of this, Vypra". It felt unimaginative and cliché, but it might just work. It was all she had time for anyway. She felt her control of the troll getting weaker. Vypra was probably awake enough to register what she was doing, although still not strong enough to stop it. She quickly grabbed the candle standing on the table beside the bed, and dropped it on the book. By now, Vypra really started to fight back. Seemed like setting the Keel on fire was something she didn't want to do... Emeline struggled for a few more seconds, fighting to keep control of the troll's mind as the fire caught on to the hay bedding and quickly grew in strenght. But seconds was all she got, before the troll broke free.

She quickly moved away from the Keel. The fire should keep Vypra busy enough to not go searching around. She got her horse and left Ratchet to the south again, making sure as few as possible saw her. After that she rode west, taking a windrider from the Crossroads back to Thunder Bluff. Hopefully, this would scare Vypra enough to stay out of this all. If not, she had at least bought some time to figure out a better plan. Best thing would of course be to kill Tivak, but that was only her last resort. For now, she would try to save him instead.

((hope this reply is okay, but i need to set up for some things i did last night as i was seen around IC'ly and need to get Vyp from the keel to where she was later))

Vypra dismounted her frostwolf and walked into the Broken Keel. It had been a long day. It was funny how people seemed to disappear or had pressing business the minute she needed to speak to them about Tivak. She slumped down at her favorite table and took out the notebook.

It was still fairly empty. Emeline's statements were the most detailed she had been able to get so far so she put it to one side and got on with checking the stock instead.

It was a strange pressure on her mind that suddenly brought her up short. Why was she standing holding a candle over a bed...and why was her notebook sat atop a small pile of straw pulled from the mattress.

Sweat began to bead her forehead as she fought to regain control. A growl issued from her throat as her hand jerked open, dropping the candle. The dry straw began to smoulder immediately and Vypra redoubled her mental efforts, finally breaking free in time to see the pages of her notebook blacken and curl.

Curses tumbling from her lips, the shaman forced her mind into focus and called a small water spirit to help her put out the fire. The soggy mess smelled pretty bad so she simply dragged the bed outside thinking herself lucky it had only been one of the cheap cots rather than the finely sprung Double bed.

Once the air inside the inn had cleared, Vypra headed back in to asses the damage. The message on the wall must have been obsured by the smoke earlier, but there it was in crude letters above where the burned bed had stood.

She dashed back outside, peering around searchingly but already knowing it was useless. There wouldn't even be much of scent trail she could follow now her sense were clouded by the reek of smoke. Sighing, the troll set off to see if she could hire a cleaner to finish up sorting out the mess, then she would head to thunder bluff. She needed peace and quiet, and good night's sleep!

It's a wonderful reply. Now to figure out Emmy's next step in this..