Myre waits for Tiria to take a look around before leaving the temple. She thought they were pretty safe in avoiding Marcus but it would pay to be careful.

Once Tiria returned Myre moved out with Duchess in her backpack.

Tusk heads out with the others.
Should Marcus or Winston turn up, he prepares to act as a distraction or otherwise diffuse the situation.

You don't run into Marcus or Winston on the way back to the Town Hall. When you arrive at the Town Hall, Majalin stops what she was doing, comes up and asks quietly, "Have you made progress in your investigation?"

OOC: if any of you have a reason to stop and talk to Smith or anything, you may post in the Town Hall thread, I just figured we could skip the intervening step of moving there and back otherwise.

"Yes, yes we did," Tears grins, "Myre here has Duchess safely stowed away," she points a thumb in the druid's direction.

"It's time for her to see the man in charge and have a little chat."

"The poor creature," says Majalin, with a sympathetic look. "Please, follow me upstairs." She leads you, this time, not to the second floor, but straight to the third floor, past a few open doors to empty bedrooms, to a closed door, behind it, you hear the familiar, grating voice of Marcus, shouting loud enough to be heard even before you approach the door. "Forget about the damned cat, uncle! She's probably frozen to death by now. Lets leave this backwater, and never come back!" Majalin hesitates to knock.

Tears sees Majalin hesitation and looks at the others before shrugging and knocking loudly on the door herself.

"Hell-oooo! We have Duch-eeeeeess, can weeee come iiiinnnnn?" she calls through the door in a cheery sing-song way, a complete contrast to the clear tone of Marcus's voice.

An unfamiliar man's voice cries out excitedly. "Duchess! Come in, quickly!" When Majalin opens the door, a middle-aged man in silk pajamas, with five o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes, red from hours of crying, is hurrying toward the door, "Where is my darling baby! Is she okay? I must see her!"

Marcus looks surprised, and irritated. Then again, you've never seen him not looking irritated.

Divok enters the room, following Myre, who has the cat safely stowed. "Ahh, there you are. We hunted high and low for you, but thought it better to return safely with Duchess when we couldn't find you." lied Divok to the gruff sounding Marcus. There was no shake or hesitation in his voice. He was used to dealing with bullies.

"We found Duchess hiding in the temple. Clearly looking for divine guidance or something. The lord only knows why she ran." he said, hiding the real truth so that he could gauge both of the mens reactions.

08:15, Today: Divok Gezaha rolled 20 using 1d20+1.  Deception. – [roll=1620260130.74868.356698]

Tusk casually strolls in with the others. His face is an unreadable mask as he takes in the sobbing noble in his jammy-jams.

"She certainly ran afoul of that Kenku at the temple, though. It's a good thing we arrived when we did. When one is attacked by a broom-wielding custodian of the god of the dead, is it safe to say she had a ... brush ... with Death?"

He lets out a slight guffaw at his own joke.

Tears snorts at Tusk's joke and struggles to keep a straight face.

The elf's blue-green eyes twinkle with mirth.

Irsoneic was silent for a solid couple of moments after the joke before he suddenly started laughing as though he'd just figured it out. The laugh was a weird combination of squeak and hiss. The sound of it seemed to shock him as much as anyone else, cutting it off short. You might think was his first introduction to a joke.

Myre frowns at the voices from the other side of the door, unsure as to how to proceed. However her hesitation is broken by Tiria and she raises her brows in surprise at the fanciful announcement from the elf.

As Lord Caldessar approaches Myre steps forward and sits her backpack on the ground before  him.

She lifts the flap back and speaks softly inside, "Lady Duchess. Are you awake? We have arrived and Lord Caldessar is very keen to see you."

She opens the backpack wide so Duchess can get out and Lord Caldessar can see her.

She looks between her companions with a bewildered grin as they snort and laugh at Tusks jest. "Yes, Duchess was very upset with that bird. What was it she said? Oh, Cats chase birds, never the other way around."

Unsurprisingly, Myre's raven had been conspicuously absent since Duchess was recovered.

Duchess rushes to her pet human, and leaps into his arms. She purrs

For his part, Markus just looks as irritated as usual.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:24, Fri 07 May 2021.

Divok clears his throat.

"My Lord. As much as it pains me to say so. Duchess has some rather explicit instructions regarding your nephew. It appears that she accuses him of removing her bell and trying to drown her on purpose. I didn't want to say, but she is insistent on this information being passed on to you."

He looks somewhat pained, expecting some kind of retribution for revealing this information.

"Can you believe the nerve of this... this riff-raff! They probably stole the cat themselves, hoping to bring it for a reward!" sputters Marcus.

Lord Caldessar says to Divok, "I hope you have more than a claim that you can talk to cats to support your accusation, young man."

Duchess meows

Shaking his head, Divok knew that this was exactly the reaction he was going to get into as soon as the claims were made. "Knew this was going to happen. Okay. Fine. Let's agree that cats are pretty much their own boss, right?"

He asks Myre to place Duchess on the floor. "So, if we place Duchess right next to her master, and we have each of us ask Duchess to come along. Perhaps if Duchess and I have had a conversation already about her coming to me, you would get the sense that she is able to to understand me, and therefore I am able to understand her. If I then ask her to return to Lord Caldessar and she does, then surely that is a good demonstration of my ability to speak to her and understand her?"

When this was done, he did as he had described, asking Duchess to walk to him, then to return to Lord Caldessar.

Lord Caldessar set her down (Myre had already let her go to him,) and she looked at him, then casually walked over to Divok. She meowed  and walked back to Damien. She hissed at Marcus for good measure.

Marcus said, "They've clearly bewitched the beast, uncle! She never does what she's told!"

Lord Caldessar said, "She never does what you tell her to. She knows you hate her. Ever since the day I took you in, you've hated her! What did she ever do to you?"

Duchess meows

Divok chuckles as Duchess tells him the story. "I may be hearing things wrong, but can I ask...is Duchess supposed to inherit your estate if you pass away? She says that Marcus thinks that is the case. Perhaps he thought that removing Duchess from this world would allow him to stand a better chance of inheriting your wealth?"

He gives a recap of what he has said to Duchess, trying to make sense of things.

The pieces of the plot seem to align in his mind as Tusk ponders the situation, and he looks directly at Marcus.

"Interesting that you'd offer us a significant reward to return Duchess to you and keep quiet, because when we got here we could hear you yelling and trying to convince your uncle to leave. It doesn't sound like you wanted to actually honor your offer at all, or that you are concerned about the cat's welfare. This mention of an inheritance, however, places a different context around your actions."

Myre smiled as Divok took the lead, he was handling things much as she would have. Except perhaps with less theatrics and the absence of mushrooms. She was still curious if a cat would eat them... She would have to find out another day.

Myre looks to Marcus, following up on what Divok and Tusk had said. "Lady Duchess has just renounced any claim on Lord Caldessar's inheritance." She frowns at the young lord, "Where the Lord will bequeath his fortune is up to him, however Lady Duchess is no competition to your ambition." She spread a hand and lowered her head. "Surely you can leave her be?"

Her concern was clearly not of gold, nor even really Lord Caldessar's need for his pet back. Myre was looking out for Duchess.

22:05, Today: Myre rolled 11 using 1d20+1.  Persuasion.
Persuasion against Marcus if allowed.

Inhereitances and renouncing, and...Irsoneic had absolutely no idea what anyonie was talking about. The boy set the cat free and tried to kill it, then tried to hire the group to find him the cat so he could try to kill it again; that bit he understood. Now the boy was blaming them for stealing the cat to start with? The rest of it was a language he did not speak.

Hopefully someone would say the boy could die soon, that would make sense. Irsoneic would know what to do for that.

Tears silently makes an "ooh" shape with her mouth as Divok and Myre speak, remaining quiet for now.

Lord Caldessar scoffed. "Leave my estate to Duchess? Where would Marcus get such an idea?"

"You were meeting with the Abbot. I overheard you say something about a Duchess, and about taking care of the place when you're gone," said Marcus.

"Foolish boy! How long do you think cats live? Sad as I am to think about it, Duchess will not likely live for more than a few more years. You misheard a private conversation with my friend, Abbott Cassius! I told Cassius that since I never wed, Duchess had been the closest thing I had to a child, until your parents, may they be eternally blessed, passed away and left you in my care, all those years ago."

Both men seem to have forgotten there's anyone in the room.

"But--"

"Silence, boy! You will hear the rest of this, so you can see the full extent of your folly! You are like a son to me! I discovered the identity of the young lady you fancied from the Masquerade Ball: the Duchess of Orness, and told Cassius, the only friend I would trust with such an important task, that I would be bringing you here for a time, and asked him to set up a proper introduction and have the place ready for you to woo her while we were away. Why do you think I would bring you here, knowing how much you hate the cold!"

"I--"

"Blast it boy, that was a rhetorical question! Have I treated you so poorly, that you would think so little of my love for you? Can you begin to imagine the pain you've caused me?"

Marcus began to cry.

"Not rhetorical!"

"Forgive me, uncle! I thought you only loved the cat!"

"So you thought to kill her? Is this the man I'm raising! You..." Damien's voice grew soft, as the realization struck him, "you thought... my gods... I really never was cut out to be a father, was I? How did I miss you becoming so bitter, so selfish. You saw the affection I gave Duchess, and thought because I didn't treat you the same way, I loved you less. I don't know which of us I'm more ashamed of."

Lord Caldessar seemed to notice you all, once again. Wearily, he said, "I thank you all for finding Duchess. Please keep what you've heard here between us, okay. I don't travel with much money, but I will send you all a suitable reward once I return home. After I've sent home the Duchess of Orness and apologized for wasting her time, of course," he gives Marcus a stern look, "He's clearly far from ready for a courtship. Maybe some time with Cassius can sort him out."

Marcus no longer looks irritated. All you see on his face is shame. Maybe's there's hope for the young man after all. But that cat will always be spoiled!

Irsoneic, understanding slightly better after having heard all of that, simply nodded his head to the nobleman and then quietly departed. Emotions were not a thing he had to deal with, but he knew they were a big part of the lives of other races, so he left them to it.

Divok is pleased at the outcome. "It seems like you both owe Duchess a debt of gratitude. If she hadn't escaped, who knows how this would have escalated!" he thinks to himself.

"It's been a pleasure aiding you. I don't suppose your generosity would extend to a small room to sleep in for the night would it? I'm on a tight budget. Perhaps some servants quarters have room?"