Telemachus nods as Panatix speaks, but the druid says nothing as he waits for the villagers of Farnworth to respond to Hewney's explanation of the situation.

"No, it was we", Westin says meekly, his brow furrowed.

His normally sharp mind was still trying to catch up with all the revelations that had occurred in the last few minutes. The discovery that Cannibal had been some type of loathsome, monstrous beast. Dak's failure to provide any support in the fight followed by his abrupt departure from the battlefield. Pathwyn's defense of Dak and her admission that they both had been employed by Eliphas. And then Pathwyn's appeal to Eliphas's men to revive Eliphas's former business right here in the village! Nor did Westin think everything had been revealed. The stabbing of Eliphas in the back and the use of poison strongly suggested that Penrhyn was an assassin. Assassins only kill for money. That left the question, who had paid him and who would benefit from Eliphas's death?


Westin takes a sharp breath in and looks over at Pathwyn, a look of shock gradually replaced with fear. Another thought occurred to him. One way of not paying the price for an assassination was to kill the assassin. He casually moved over near Storm, doing his best at keeping the warrior between him and Pathwyn or at least near Storm while trying not to be obvious about it.

As he hears Panatix denounce Dak, Westin looks down, unable to find words for Dak's defense. Pathwyn, however, already had. It remained to be seen just how far she would go...

By now, Alvador saw that there were a total of nine villagers gathered in the center of town, although they were all men.  The fishing men out near the Ananke did not appear to be coming into shore, but unless the villagers were to give contradictory accounts, it would seem that there were more than enough to support whatever determination might be made.

One of the men who had emerged from the buildings in the center of the village nodded at Hewney's words.  "Always knew he wasn't quite natural.  Good that he came to a sticky end."

The other man who had come from the other central building of the village said, "Name's Bradan.  Them folk," and here he pointed at the four that had come from Eliphas' house, "at least they always paid their bills with no complaining, never made any trouble.  Biggest troubles, them came from some of the other folk, big fellas what come up dead.  Just like Damon."  Here, Bradan gave a daggered look up at the church.  "There be Burl, huge ugly guy what took over the inn.  And Vildin, he done killed Crónán, then made Tiarnán" and here he nodded at the first of the villagers to speak "give him full coin for the armor and arms, not that any of us could afford it.  Them others," and he gestured to the mass of men who had fought--or at least intended to do so--for Cannibal, "they come swarm you like a pack o' locusts and leave you near as bare as locusts do."

One of the lead men from the group that had come from Eliphas' house said, "These folk don't got the coin to pay.  And we was still owed this week's pay.  Not sure that damned snake Penrhyn go to Shipton, be like the bastard say that he going there, and then make his way somewhere's else, but we'll hunt him down, you leave us to go."

With no bartender and the exit of the young lass up the stairs, Wick moves outside in the wake of the others.  As the locals start sharing their input, Wick nods but finds little of interest in the whole thing.  He should have at least gotten a mug of ale before coming outside but at this point, he'd stay quiet and see what Telemachus has to say.

"None of them tried to do any good or stop the others?" Dak asked the man named Bradan.  At this rate, Pathwyn's god would be receiving quite the sacrifice.

He was ignoring the outburst from Eliphas' man.  At least they weren't after him anymore and were willing to go after Penryn on their own.

"Fear is no crime," Hewney suggested. "Retribution should fall most heavily on the instigators, and those who actively did wrong."

He seemed pleased that the locals were willing to speak up for themselves, it spoke volumes to him about the circumstance.

Alvador, after discovering that ringing the bell counted as exercise, stops and collects Chree. He walks out and makes his way by Pathwyn.

Pathwyn was glad to see Hewney take an active role in getting the people of Farnworth to open up.

She listened as Bradan mildly exonerated Eliphas' men, and condemned Cannibal's gang.  Some of details of who did what to whom were a bit confusing to her, but the general message was clear.  It would be interesting to hear what the townspeople wanted to be done with these men.

"When we go back to Shipton," she said to Bradan and the others.  "We will ask the church of St Vallon to send a real priest of Atu here to set right some of Damon's wrongs."


From what the lead man was saying Pathwyn got the impression that these men were just hired muscle.  If they couldn't run Eliphas' business in his absence they had no reason to stay and help Farnworth.  She'd have to think of another way for the town to protect itself.  Possibly a militia?  She sighed.  She did not want to train a militia now.  They had Gwysol's books to deliver to Bragi University and that Mathematica book to find for Panatix.

"So far no one has spoken ill of you men.  You sound confident and capable of hunting Penrhyn down.  I'm willing to return your arms and leave you to it."

"Should have the lot of them thrashed," said one of the men gathered in from the fields by Myrick.  "Sound beatings like what they give us.  And then send them away."

"Make 'em work," said another of those gathered from the fields, "real work, not five o' them beating up one man."

"Never really seen that group," said  Tiarnán, gesturing to Eliphas' employees, "except that they were passing into the tavern next door.  They kept quiet in that house."

"Be a right kindness, getting us a true priest," said another farmer, the one who had been praying when the Forhorns had come to Farnworth the first time.

Beatings sounded better than hangings to Hewney, but he wasn't sure that would satisfy Pathwyn.

"Well them, what say we create a few categories of punishments, and let the town folk vote for who goes in to each one. Do any of them deserve less than a beating? Do any deserve the loss of a hand? What is the range here?"

“They certainly deserve justice but not mob justice. I say we bring them to an authority who can judge them and mete out the necessary punishment,” Storm says.

"Once we take them out of this town, Storm, all the evidence is left. It will be there word against ours, and we stand as good a chance of being arrested for kidnapping them as they do of getting punished for their crimes. This is where they committed those crimes, and these are their victims. They work for a living, and expecting them to travel miles and days away from their homes and families is like committing a second crime against them."

"A public stoning and beating would be cathartic for the townspeople.  I approve of that.  However, these are tough men.  They are used to taking a beating.  Not a single one of them would learn a lesson from it and days later it'd be like it never happened.  If we let them go after the beating, what's keeping them from coming back for revenge?  Nothing."

"Perhaps a public beating AND dragging them off to Monteci for imprisonment," she suggested.  "But Hewney's right.  We can't just take them there ourselves.  We'd need a couple of witnesses to volunteer to come with us to Monteci."

Pathwyn turned to Telemachus.

"Does your ship have a brig that could hold 12 men for a trip to Monteci?"

Pan has listened and it sounds like the wolf man's men did the bullying and damage around here.  Where these newcomers working for Eliphas seem to be hired hands, and paid their bills and didn't seem to cause trouble, as much.   It's a little muddy but those seemed the mood of the town.

To Mac and the others, "If Vend is staying here, maybe she can hire on the Eliphas' men to help her keep the peace.  The wolfman's crew can take a beating and be run out of town, if they ever come back, Vend and her crew can deal with them.   If you want to really discourage them from causing trouble, the town could remove their thumbs, hard to use a weapon with no thumbs.  I think it should be up to them, we are going to move on and they'll need to deal with it in the longtime."

"I still say the locals are best suited to be the judges here. They were the victims after all, and they seem to be fair people. "

While Lenelle had her opinions, she reckoned that there were, at this point, more than enough of those on the table.  She said a short, silent prayer for the souls of the innocent, with the wish all would work out for the best, in the hands of those who understood this matter better than she did.

There was however something else on her mind:

"Do I understand right, that there was a false priest - practicing in Atu's name? I'm a rightfully anointed priestess of the church.   If that was the case, then I'd like to know where the shrine is.  And be admitted to inspect the inside of it, so I may give proper report to my superiors." 

Dak pointed back up the hill to the church with the bell tower.  "That's the church right there," he said to Lenelle.

He then went over to Eliphas' men, who seemed to have been exonerated and began untying them.  "It's only hearsay that Penrin went to Shipton, but if we find him elsewhere, we'll take care of him wherever he is."

"Wait, what?"

Pathwyn is blindsided by this news appearing out of nowhere.

"Are you planning on staying in Farnworth?" she asked the pirate-y lady.  "That certainly would solve a few different problems at a stroke.  It's a nice house too.  A good base in a good location."

At one point she thought Hewney might want to take over Eliphas' organization here.  She couldn't think of a better man for the job.  He was bright, crafty, well organized, and good with people.  Above all he was a good man, and wouldn't let the shady side of the business corrupt him. But Pathwyn was selfishly glad to have him adventuring with her instead.  What would the Forhorns be without their 'boss'?




"If you don't mind me asking, who and where are your superiors?"

All of a sudden her jobs were getting easier and easier.  She might not even need to find and convince a journeyman priest of Atu to take up the church of Farnworth if Lenelle was planning to do it.  She was better suited and positioned to make such a request than Pathwyn.  This crew was literally a godsend.

"Monteci is not far, we could get them there, but it does not seem to be the mood of the people."


Telemachus nods in agreement. "A good thought, Panatix. Vendavel is well-versed with Eliphas' operations and those thugs will likely be content to work for her as long as they get paid."


"A false priest? Or a priest that lost sight of Atu's path?"

Alvador is listening in in on the conversation. Matters seem to be proceeding usefully.

"I don't know.  It was a shoot first, ask questions later situation, and he didn't survive to the ask questions part," Pathwyn answered with a chill in her voice.

That reminded her that she had arrows to retrieve.  There were 4 in corpses and a couple others lying around.  After she recovered her arrows she knelt down to search Cannibal's body.  At the very least she expected to find a sword he'd claimed gave him authority over Farnworth.

Vendavel had a slightly embarrassed expression, and then said, "It's not so much taking over any operations, but I could certainly keep these people safe from another gang moving in to harm them."

"DeMontec doesn't have these lands," said Myrick.  "Best we deal with them here.  The thumbs, that's a good idea."

Dak reflexively flexed his thumbs.  These guys must have really done a number on the townsfolk here, but what goes around comes around.  He wondered if it would be enough of a sacrifice to satisfy the Blood Priestess.

“I agree it will be out words against theirs but perhaps we can trouble some villagers to come with us to be witnesses. As much as how hard I fight to protect the villagers, I will too protect these men until they are proven guilty by a competent  and legal authority,” Storm says, reasoning with his friends.

To the towns folks, he proclaims,” These men harmed you and we have overcome them. Let us deal with them justly and show the grace and kindness of good folks. Kindness that theee men did not show you.”