>>6136831She sighs, “Things aren’t well. Brother-Inquisitor Abram was not able to find much other than the names and families of those who disappeared. According to him, everything seems to have started in the early spring when the town’s drunkards and beggards started to disappear. Most thought they just didn’t survive the winter until a few adventurous children also went missing, then old Lissa the widow, then the adventurers who lived here, and from then on, the pattern Abram saw disappeared as anyone appeared to be fair game. Tavern’s pretty empty these days, though not for the reasons I’d like,” She humorously laughs, “Abram’s investigations lead him to believe a specific type of person was being targeted, those most likely to simply die one day without being found. The elements or monsters getting them.”
“I see, I’ll have to investigate those cases myself then. I’d appreciate it if you could give me some more specifics later. Though, have you noticed anything else? Not through the Inquisitor but just yourself?”
She appears to think for a moment before hesitantly speaking, “W-well, more and more people have stopped coming to church since the winter ended. Even rest-day attendance has plummeted. I-I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, but ever since the mist rolled in and the disappearances started, people have just become more and more sullen.”
“The mist?” You say rather quickly, “Is that not normal here?” It should be, geographically this is the perfect place for fog. You should know, a lifetime ago, you studied stuff like this.
“A-ah, well, Lurkwell’s always been a foggy and rainy place ever since I grew up here, but it seems to have gotten rather intense this year. Why, I don’t think I’ve seen it go away for a month now, at least. Usually, it comes and goes with the day, but this year, it seems to linger like the depression hanging over the town. Well, depression of everyone but the fishermen,” She notices your quirked brow and continues, “The catch has been bountiful this year, brother. Every day, the men who go out to fish come back with loaded boats. It’s only late spring, and I’m sure if the mayor can trade for enough salts, we’ll already have enough to last us the winder, so at least we have that going for us.”
Something about that last remark catches you as very strange. Your beaten-in Inquisitor instinct tells you that if someone seems to be benefiting while everyone else suffers, that’s grounds for an investigation. But then there’s that fact nothing here seems too Strange or otherworldly. In this world, magical anomalies sometimes just happen, so creeping mist or plentiful catches may be perfectly mundane, but still, you’ve been ordered here and need to investigate something. If you do go around asking about the people that have disappeared, then that’ll certainly get the message across to the town that the Inquisition is still here, still watching, and maybe that’ll help uproot the culprit, granted there even is one.
