The officer gives Neide a look like I'm a little surprised, and yet I guess I really shouldn't be, huh and he leads Neide upstairs to an office. He knocks on the door.

"S'open..." comes a gruff voice from inside.

The officer opens the door. "Uh, chief, there's an Alaran right here who wants to see you."

The chief has half a second of a groan that is suddenly cut off. "Thank you, Aldo, show 'em in."

Aldo leaves Neide at the doorway, after sort of gesturing her to go ahead and enter...

Neide entered the chief constable's room and gave the man a welcoming nod.

"Thank you for seeing me", she said, "I came to the town today escorting a small group of pilgrims and I've learnt of some matters that, I think, require my attention as a soldier of our Goddess. Could you and I speak in private..?"

OOC: Hmmm, what would be the proper way of addressing this character? What is his official title: Chief Constable?

"Yes." He hesitated for a moment, and then got up, walked over, and shut the door behind her (apparently the hesitation had been when he thought about telling her to do it, and then decided he'd better do it himself).




(Sure, go with that)

Neide waited for the officer to close the door, then turned to him and spoke:

"Chief constable, I visited the temple of Veles and I learned of the... recent happening in this town. The crimes supposedly committed by someone worshipping Veles... This is a serious matter. I'd like to ask: what are you and your men doing about it? From what I've heard, the tensions are growing high in Bredon because of these crimes..."

(Resist biting your head off roll: 09:40, Today: The GM rolled 9 using 2d6 ((4,5)). Mostly/partially successful.)

"--Now listen here, you-- Where do you ge--" The chief lowers the finger he was suddenly pointing at Neide, and visibly restrains himself, almost shuddering with the effort. "...I apologize," he says next, in a much more civil tone. "Please understand, that I deal with citizens every day who ask me exactly that question, in pretty much the exact same wording you used, and it's..." He sighs. "What we are doing is exactly what you might expect we would be doing. We patrol every night. Some of us move around, and some of us stake out likely trouble spots. We catch no one. Wherever we are, the perpetrator or perpetrators are always somewhere else, hiding, or acting-- and when they act, we arrive too late to do anything but put out any fires that may have been started. During the day, we ask any questions we can think of that might be useful, which at this point only serves to stir up more resentment. Do you have any suggestions, miss...?" He trails off, clearly leaving a space for Neide to offer her name (or a name, anyway) if she feels like doing so.

"Neide", the former Alaran soldier introduced herself, "And please, don't take me the wrong way: it's not my intention to accuse you or your men of negligence. I'm simply trying to learn more of what's going on..."

As she spoke, her tone was calm and forthcoming. Somehow, that constable seemed to be an honest man to Neide...

"And no, I don't have any suggestions... But please tell me: do you have any suspicions as to whom might be behind all of this?"

"Honestly, no. I don't see what motive anyone from Bredon would have-- because if it was anyone who lives here, why now? Why not last year, or three years ago, or five? And if it's a person or persons from out of town... then... how do they know never to hit citizens of the wrong faith? It feels like someone who really knows these people... So... What does it mean? Why would anyone from out of town do this? What's to gain? It doesn't make sense... Unless it's just to make everyone really frustrated with me and my men, in which case it's working great, but what's the larger goal? What does it achieve, if it's not about religious zealotry among two faiths that don't usually have a problem with each other...?"

"I agree that all of this is strange", Neide agreed, "So, you don't think that it could be bigotry... a hateful member of one of the two faiths? I agree that would be unusual, but..."

"Well, I mean, we can't rule it out, but..." He sighs. "It doesn't feel right to me, but I guess that doesn't matter right now as much as what they hope to achieve by doing this...? And THAT doesn't matter as much as... how do we catch them?"

"And these might the two important questions...", Neide agreed, "But what are the answers? You said you and your men kept patrolling the town - and yet, you didn't manage to even see whoever is doing all this. I guess we could stick to doing this - hopefully, we'd catch a suspect one day. On the other hand, we can try thinking whom the possible suspects might be - by looking at what they might be willing to achieve."

She gave the Chief Constable a slightly sad look.

"I am *not* saying one of these methods is the right one... I'm not trying to play the smart one here. This case *is* hard to deal with..."

"Um. ...I... I don't know, maybe fresh eyes and ears might help. Personally, I've over-thought every possible suspect to the point that I'm getting nowhere trying to play one-sided mindgames with whoever-it-is. If the motive is genuine religious zealotry, I guess it could be practically anyone. But I don't like saying 'someone's doing it because they're out of their mind.' It feels like a cheap excuse for something that seems so well-organized. But what other motive is there? That someone wants to get me fired? Because if that's the plan, I'd say there's less than a month to go, if I'm lucky. But that idea also just feels like me feeling sorry for myself, not something I should really take seriously as someone's motive."

"I don't think it's a plot against you or any of the constables, either...", Neide said, "It would be a really roundabout way of getting at you, if that was the case. No, this is something else... something bigger, I fear. Some attempt at stirring real unrest in the town, maybe?"

She frowned.

"Can you think of anyone who would benefit from a riot or any other kind of chaos in Bredon..?"

"I... N... No... not yet. But that doesn't mean it's not the case. What's been happening would be perfect for someone new coming in and taking over. Maybe Easterners...? Nah... we're much too far from the border. And Bredon doesn't have any military importance, anyway. No, what it has is money. Someone else taking over the town could really start funneling a lot of money into their pockets... and that's a motive I can understand. That feels right. I don't know who's behind it, but that's got to be it. I'll bet this has all been a set-up for someone who hasn't revealed themselves yet. So... the next question... or so it seems to me... is... how do I get them to reveal themselves? And how do I pin this on them? I've been so focused on the town... maybe the real perpetrators are in the woods nearby...? The woods are thick to the northwest... And I haven't searched for anyone camping up there... Why would I? But..." The chief constable is excited. He looks at Neide gratefully. "...Say, ah, Neide, is it...? Are you alone? Are there more Alarans with you? And whether you're alone or not, might I interest you in helping with this? Outside of my own men, you're the person I trust most right now... And you might be ahead of the list of a few of them, honestly...?"

"You can trust me", Neide assured the Chief Constable, "And yes, I'd be interested in helping you. There are no other Alaran soldiers with me - but the pilgrims I'm travelling with would be happy to help, too. They are all quite capable people..."

She tilted her head thoughtfully.

"So... you say there's this place in the forest you think might be worthy of looking into..?"

"Yeah, Greenhill, it's called. It's a spot, oh, less than two miles to the northwest. Used to be a popular little camping site, until there was a wolf attack one year, then everyone sort of soured on it. But there's a stream nearby for water, yet the Greenhill itself it nice and dry, plenty of firewood around, quiet and secluded..."

Neide nodded slightly.

"I can go there with my companions", she said, "We'll investigate the place and see whether anyone's hiding there. Any other place you'd like us to check?"

"Nothing I can think of right n--" He pauses. "No, not right now. Let's see if there's anyone at Greentop first... But listen, whomever this is, he, or they, are professional-level good. Don't take any chances, please. Feel free to go, spy, and if you see anyone remotely sinister or dangerous-looking, carefully get away and come right back and tell me."

"Understood", Neide said, "All right, then - I shall be going... unless you have any other ideas?"

She gave the Chief Constable a thoughtful look.

"You seem to have something else on your mind..."

(Hmm... CHA roll, please...)

22:52, Today: Neide rolled 3 using 2d6-1

(Oops. Neide gets 1 new xp but takes -1 forward.)

The Chief Constable looks like he's about to answer, then he gets a sort of (Suspicious? Anxious? Worried? It's hard to say) look on his face. "No... no, never mind that just now... I'd rather keep that thought close to my vest for the moment..."

"... all right, then", Neide replied, after a momentary pause, "I'll gather my companions and leave for the Greentop. I'll see when we get back"

She gave the officer a farewell nod, then headed back to the tavern.

"Understood-- I'll be waiting eagerly to hear what, if anything, you find. But stay safe-- if you can keep it just a scouting mission, then do keep it just a scouting mission... I'll be happiest if you go, find a problem, and come back here and tell me without anyone seeing you..."

"Of course", Neide assured the constable as she was leaving, "We'll try to keep away from trouble, if we find any at all..."

OOC: If the Chief Constable has nothing else to say, Neide will go back to the tavern and report everything she learned to her friends.

"Say! You did well!" exclaims Kerran. "Shall we get ready to go now, or...?" He's obviously eager to investigate what he sees as this frame-job against the local followers of Veles...

Ondreya and Aden both look at Neide for her response. They're both clearly less champing-at-the-bit than is Kerran, but seem to have no objections of their own against leaving any time Neide says...