The next day, the party, with considerable eagerness, left the shabby inn and headed out on horseback. After about four hours, the party came to a roadhouse, but kept going. Two hours later, at mid-afternoon, they began to pass farms and barns. Soon they came to a crossroads with a well and tavern. They stopped to water the horses, then took lunch at the tavern. Quickly they finished eating the rather mediocre fare, then got up to leave. "Bye now, hurry back!" the proprietor shouted to them as they left.
After a few more hours’ riding, near dusk the party reached Codsall. Codsall was a small village of about 100 people, with a few shops, small stores, an inn, craftsmen’s establishments, modest houses. Most of the villagers worked out in the surrounding fields. The party sought out the local inn (The Pleasant Pheasant), and took a room for the night. Later on they went to the dining room for dinner, finding surprisingly good country fare at a reasonable price.
They looked around the dining room, but didn’t see anyone resembling Jeni. They spotted a waiter, a young, bored-looking fellow, and asked him if he knew her.
"Well," he yawned, "sounds like a lady used to live in town, but she got spooked and said she was moving to Greyhawk."
"Do you know where she used to live?" asked Merovech.
"Yah, she used to live out on the outskirts, where the "bad boys" used to be. She liked guys like that. Little too much, if you ask me," the waiter continued, winking at Merovech. "Got knocked up by one of ‘em. Poor lil’ baby, died about a year ago. Then all this recent violence finally drove her over the edge, said she was going somewhere safer."
"How about her house?" continued Merovech, pulling out a gold coin. "Or others who may have known her?"
The waiter happily told the party where her house was. It turned out the house was owned by the town merchant, who had rented it to her. "But he’ll be back tomorrow," the waiter added.
"Looks like we’re going to be here for a while," observed Kenric. The party duly took lodging for the night.
Next morning after breakfast, the party went to the merchant’s shop. The door was open. Inside, the usual assortment of general merchandise was accompanied here and there by some good quality bargains. Evidently, the merchant knew a thing or two about business. Behind the counter was a young girl tending the shop, about age 14 or so.
Merovech bought a bottle of wine and some horseshoes, and began to chat up the girl behind the counter. She proved to be the merchant’s daughter, so Merovech asked her if she knew Jeni.
"Oh yes," said the girl, "she used to rent daddy’s old second house. She moved to Greyhawk, she was scared of things happening around here. I haven’t seen her in a month or so."
"Is the old house for rent?" asked Merovech.
"As far as I know," she replied. "Daddy could tell you when he gets back."
Merovech gave the girl a gold piece for her trouble. Her eyes lit up. "Thank you sir!" she exclaimed, quickly pocketing the coin.
The party waited out in front of the store until about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when the merchant finally showed up. He was driving a large cart of goods to stock the store with. Merovech went to talk to him, politely. His detect evil was negative."We’ve come in from Greyhawk," said Merovech. "We’re looking for Jeni."
"Ah, Jeni!" said the merchant. "Poor girl. Haven’t seen her since she left town. Hope she’s OK. Always felt sorry for her, especially since her kid died."
"Does she have any close friends who are still in town?" inquired Merovech. "Not really," the merchant answered, "but she was kind of friendly with one of the milkmaids." The merchant directed the party to the farm where the milkmaid lived. It was near the house that he had rented to Jeni. Merovech thanked the merchant, and left him with five gold pieces for his help. The merchant looked at his hand in amazement, then thanked the knight as he and the rest of the party left for the farm.
At the farm, the party found the barn door open. They went in, and found numerous cows and two milkmaids doing the afternoon milking. Merovech went over to them and asked if they knew Jeni.
One of the milkmaids said to the other, "Oh, didn’t she used to be friends with Wendy?" To which the other milkmaid answered, "Yeah, she did."
"Wendy, another milkmaid?" asked Merovech.
"She used to work here, but she left town, maybe a week or two after Jeni moved out."
"Where did she move to?"
"Oh, we don’t know," the first girl replied, "but she probably went off chasing that old nasty boyfriend of hers!"
Merovech pulled out a coin purse and gave each girl a gold piece, with the promise of more if they could him how to find the boyfriend, and what they knew about him. "Oh, he was a bad guy, nobody ever pinned anything on him but we had our suspicions!" the first girl exclaimed. To which the second girl added, "Yeah, that Bragi was bad news!"
"Have you seen him recently?" continued the knight. "Not lately," the girls answered. "But if we do, we’ll tell you!" the second girl assured him, while looking at his coin purse.
Merovech promised them a substantial reward if they let him know if they ever saw Bragi. With that, the party returned to the inn for the night, waiting for more information to develop.
It took more than a day to develop additional information. About a week went by, while the party spoke with the locals and looked around the countryside. Then, one late afternoon, as they returned to the village, the milkmaids met them.
"We’ve been looking for you!" the first milkmaid cried. "While you were gone, we think we saw Bragi riding out east. He was heading toward the Mistmarsh!Merovech promptly rewarded the two girls, and told them to leave him a message if they learned anything else. "But don’t tell anyone else!" he added. He then asked the girls to take the party to the place where they was Bragi riding. They led the group out to an area past the farm’s pasture. Tracks were visible!
Clothilde began to follow the tracks, but lost the trail after about a mile, due the darkness. The party decided to return to the Pleasant Pheasant and call it a night.
In the pre-dawn darkness, Merovech suddenly heard something: a faint voice from outside the village, crying for help! Quickly, the knight roused the rest of the party, then went to investigate. A little outside the village, the party found a little boy. He looked tired from running and scared to death! They took the boy back to the inn, where Clothilde cleaned him up, got him a hot drink and tried to calm him down. Merovech asked him what had happened to him.
"R-r-r-raiders came to our village!" the poor child stuttered.
"What village?" asked Merovech.
"M-m-midley," he replied. It was a small hamlet a few miles northeast of Codsall. "They k-k-killed everybody and left! I waited, m-m-m-made like I was dead. Then ran here for help!"
The party arranged for the boy’s care (hiring the milkmaids to look after him), then made preparations to find out who was behind the attack. By now, the whole village was in an uproar! Merovech quickly advised the villagers to post guards and beware. "I shall investigate this outrage!" declared the knight. "Come, friends! We must leave for Midley immediately! In the name of Hieroneous, we will find and defeat these invaders!"The party mounted up and headed toward Midley, reaching the village around sunrise. They found death and devastation. Corpses lay strewn about, many showing signs of having been slain brutally and painfully. Homes smoldered, many burnt to the ground.
Dismounting, the party examined the dead. Not one had been robbed. It was as if the little community had been ravaged for no reason other than slaughter itself.
Clothilde spotted tracks leading out of the village. "Here! The raiders must have headed east!" she cried.
"Into the Mistmarsh," said Merovech ominously. He pointed his sword in the same direction. "We ride! And woe unto them if we should find them!" He spurred his horse, and charged east, with the rest of the group following him.
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