Reinald, Brigitte & Aveline | Late Morning | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

Aveline finds a picnic spot about halfway to the dam and calls an early stop. It isn't quite lunchtime yet, but the bag she produces from her saddlebag keeps producing items well past what its dimensions should allow. She sets out sandwiches, quiche, and several things that have no business fitting in that bag, Reinald realizing it's probably some kind of Bag of Holding.

She asks Brigitte directly what she'd like. Brigitte says a sandwich with cheese is fine. Old cheese, new cheese, Concordian cheese? Brigitte says that "Just cheese" is fine. Aveline squints slightly — she's noticed Brigitte's staring — and pivots to discuss the plan.

Reinald takes out his copy of the dam's layout. Their cover story is an inspection under the De Ragnaisse trade-contract; some of the interior stonework and metalwork was supplied by the family, which gives them a legal foothold to inspect its quality.

The problem is that such a proper inspection requires three months' advance notice by letter, so they'll be pretending the letter simply never arrived. Aveline has prepared documents that look convincingly official; Reinald realizes that she was probably working on them the night before.

Their goal is simple once inside: keep Soren Meadowthorne and Duncan Meadowthorne occupied, and get Reinald and Brigitte to the dam and find out what's wrong with the water. The purification room is the most likely point of interest. The layout shows it's also the most protected area.

Aveline unclips her bracelet and hands it to Brigitte. Two gemstones, wings and sun carved into the setting. The first produces a light spell close to the body. The second casts a dancing light a short distance away. Aveline says that for now, Brigitte should hold onto it, as it's useful in the dark. But she wants it back.

The plan is reviewed, the sandwiches are finished, and while Reinald takes care of a 'nature call', Brigitte helps Aveline pack. Brigitte notices that Aveline can fit her entire arm in the bag while packing up their lunch — the bag that seems to have an unusual amount of depth.

Suddenly... Something cuts through the quiet without warning. The Beast Within speaks, directed and cold:

Push her in. Suffocate her!

Brigitte drops what she's holding and walks away to the horses. Aveline calls after her, asking if she's getting the horses ready. She grips the reins and focuses on that until her heartbeat returns to something recognizable...

... ... ...

While handling his own business in the treeline, Reinald hears a voice — gravelly, irritable, aimed at a squirrel. He finds a small elderly deerfolk with massive moose antlers, a bright pink umbrella, and farmer's clothes that someone else clearly dressed him in. He is standing in a forest, convinced it is his farm.

His name is Bromm Needlethorne. He is not entirely sure who Reinald is, or where he is, or what year it might be, but he has opinions about all of it. Reinald introduces himself four times. Bromm asks who he is each time. Reinald guides him back toward the road, where Aveline immediately understands the situation and Brigitte stares at this small furious man wandering past her toward entirely the wrong direction.

The Needlethorne Farm is about twenty minutes away, and Bromm has absolutely no intention of being carried by a horse. He walks ahead of them, steering slightly wrong, delivering a sustained monologue about the value of hard work and the failings of the younger generation. The umbrella doubles as a walking stick and a warning implement.

Aveline, Brigitte and Reinald note that Bromm is... mumbling something akin to a song... Something about 'small men coming from the water', but when asked, Bromm yells at them that he wasn't singing anything at all.

At the crossroads — one fork toward the farm, one toward the dam — Bromm walks confidently toward the dam. Several careful redirections from Reinald, Aveline and Brigitte eventually orient him correctly, at which point his granddaughter Roswyn appears, having been looking for him for hours and now very aware that a Peryton was spotted in the area.

She thanks Reinald, Aveline and Brigitte sincerely. When Aveline mentions they may need somewhere to stay that night, Roswyn offers the barn without hesitation. The family has the rooms promised to hired adventurers helping out with the sheep, but the barn is dry and warm, and it's the least she can do.

Meanwhile, Bromm keeps informing everyone that he built the farm by hand. Bromm and Roswyn say goodbye to Aveline, Brigitte and Reinald for now, with Roswyn pulling her grandfather along back to their farm.

Reinald, Brigitte & Aveline | Midday | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

The dam comes into view from the upper road, and it is genuinely impressive — a grand piece of engineering spanning the valley, the water roaring through it, the stone still holding after centuries of pressure. They drop the horses at the checkpoint. Two guards, a small visitors' building, and a general shop with souvenirs.

Aveline's plan of pretending that they sent a letter regarding the inspection seems to work; the paperwork looks official enough and so the guards redirect Aveline, Reinald and Brigitte to the visitor's offices.

On the upper walkway, before they reach the visitor's office, both Reinald and Brigitte spot Pascal on the far side of the dam — the orange-eyed Free Roadsmen man from the Drunken Phoenix, the one who picked up the missing sheep cattle job. It seems that both of them know him from separate occasions. He is talking to a guard. Brigitte wanted to say hi, but Reinald mumbles something odd under his breath and then says nothing more. Aveline doesn't know who he is. They keep moving.

A sign outside the visitor's office reads:
Dam closed to visitors, no tours at the moment. Fishing not permitted.

The visitor's closure seems to have been there for a while. The fishing sign looks more recent — plastered over the top of the original sign in the last few days.

A foxfolk lady named Zinri is behind the counter when they step into the visitor's office, surrounded by ledgers. She doesn't look up immediately — there's something she's finishing — and when she does, it's with the brisk pleasantness of someone who has greeted a thousand visitors and can read within seconds whether they're going to be straightforward or complicated.

She is warm in the way of someone who is professionally warm, which is to say genuinely so but with clear limits. The desk is tidy. The keys on her belt are sorted by size. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that she is the kind of person who keeps everything running and receives very little credit for it, and who has quietly made peace with that arrangement.

When she hears Reinald's foxfolk voice, she looks up.

Reinald introduces himself as "Reinald Novelington", which Zinri recognizes as a famed novel family! She asks whether the family is going to publish the seventh part of some popular book series anytime soon. Reinald tells her that as a Novelington, he can neither confirm nor deny anything. She accepts this with disappointment and goes to find Soren Meadowthorne.

They sit and wait. Reinald is nervous in the specific way of someone who has spent the morning running possible scenarios. Brigitte tells him it'll be fine. He gives her a look.

Zinri returns with Soren Meadowthorne, who arrives reading something and who has the expression of a man perpetually interrupted from more important work. He checks the ledger, confirms the De Ragnaisse stonework is indeed in several storage areas and the guard quarters, and decides that giving Zinri some babysitting duty is preferable to managing it himself. Zinri will show them around, and they are restricted to access relevant storage and quarters only.

Aveline catches Soren's attention before he leaves and pivots immediately to discuss possible future endeavors, warranties, contract extensions, and whether the new stonework agreement could be taken under consideration.

Soren and Aveline walk away; Aveline glances back once — a small, contained expression that says You got this! — and then she's gone.

Reinald & Brigitte | Afternoon | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

Zinri is a thorough tour-guide. She explains everything clearly, points out the best views from the top of the dam, and leads them along the upper walkway past a telescope that can see all the way to Allura's Haven on one side and the great wall separating Velvetglade territory, Fleetfoot territory and Howlstead territory.

During Zinri's tour, Reinald notes that Zinri has a striking resemblance to Rink from the odd shop in the city. The mood shifts when Reinald mentions Rink. Zinri softens immediately, the professional distance dropping for just a moment.

"Heh, someone has to pay for all those trinkets," she says, with the particular exhaustion of a mother who has long since stopped trying to change the situation and arrived somewhere closer to acceptance. She's glad he's happy, and she means it. But it's clear that Zinri is uncomfortable talking further about her son. Brigitte shifts the topic to the popular fish — not particularly a better subject...

Zinri mentions that fishing has been temporarily paused — a seasonal thing, she says, to prevent overfishing. She says it with the smoothness of someone who has said it before.

Reinald points out that the fishing docks on the far side are completely empty. He asks about the fishing notice and manages to get Zinri to confirm that all fishing channels have been formally closed. The reason she gives is the official one; Reinald and Brigitte know it's a studied line.

Inside the dam itself, the structure is a long main corridor with many halls and rooms — with guard quarters, storage rooms, the Arcanist's Offices, and at the center of everything, sealed behind a massive door marked with the Meadowthorne crest, the Dam's Purification Chamber. Throughout the entire dam, Reinald and Brigitte can feel its arcane pressure like a second heartbeat.

Zinri takes them to the first of the permitted areas, and then she says that she'll leave them to do their investigation on their own. Before she leaves, Reinald notes that she cast some kind of spell...

Reinald and Brigitte begin their search — perhaps there's something that explains the poisoning of the water and fish. In the first Employee Quarter's storage they find various crates, mostly cheap alcohol and juice belonging to the dam's guards.

Reinald crawls to check the lower stonework and finds, at the bottom of one wall behind several barrels, a single stone that protrudes slightly. He pulls it out. Behind it: a contraband bottle of Concordian rum. He pockets it without entirely explaining why. Brigitte stares at him.

The second storage room produces a locked drawer marked confiscated with something arcanely active inside — a jug, old, with deer-like engravings that Brigitte half-recognizes from somewhere she can't quite place...

Before either of them can do anything useful with it, a guard walks in to collect equipment, and they resume their "investigation" by looking at walls with "professional interest" until he leaves.

Realizing that they probably won't find anything in the guard quarters, they decide to "knock" on the Arcanist's Office door, pretending to investigate there. A younger deerfolk Arcanist opens it, assumes they have business there, and goes back to her scroll-scribing.

The room is stuffed with scrolls. Reinald, feigning interest, asks what they do here. The deerfolk explains shortly that spell scrolls are prepared here for the dam's arcanists and for the Velvetglade Academy. Reinald nearly gets her to say something about selling them privately before she thinks better of it... A missed opportunity.

As they go to leave, Brigitte spots Aveline and Soren coming down the hallway. They are currently in a room they have no business being in. She says, very calmly, oh, we wandered in thinking this was the next room, and they walk out into the corridor where they bump directly into the two of them. It befuddles the deerfolk Arcanist for a moment...

Soren wants to know what they were doing. Aveline covers with the ease of someone who has done this before. Soren asks why Zinri isn't with them, and instructs an Arcanist nearby to collect her immediately to escort Reinald and Brigitte. Aveline steps it up and decides to drag Soren along to discuss other matters.

While Aveline keeps Soren occupied, Reinald and Brigitte continue their investigation.
What they don't know is that Zinri has had a scrying eye following them for the past hour...

Reinald & Brigitte | Afternoon | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

Back in the other guard's quarters, Reinald finds water seeping from a crack in the corner wall behind one of the beds — must have been recently caused, perhaps even just that day. The crack runs along the structural stonework, part of the De Ragnaisse-supplied stone, which neatly corroborates their cover story.

Reinald notes that the water coming through smells wrong. Not immediately, not obviously, but wrong in a way that Brigitte registers in her chest before she registers it with her nose. She holds a spare bottle to it and collects a little of the water. Zinri reappears and confronts them. Zinri's innocent 'motherly' act drops. She snaps her fingers and reveals a floating eye.

She tells them she saw everything, and names the contraband rum, their investigation so far, and asks them to explain themselves. Brigitte points out that Zinri has also been lying to them about the fishing cover-up, but Zinri says flatly that she doesn't owe them any answers. She demands to know why they are here, threatening to report them.

After a useful hint from Roka, Reinald takes a different approach.

He points out that if she had wanted to report them, she would have already done so. He points out that people are getting sick in the city. He points out that the crack they found leads toward something causing all of this. Brigitte asks Zinri to share what she knows.

Zinri confirms that a few days ago, they noticed something had contaminated the fish, which is why they shut down fishing. She doesn't know if the contamination is in the water before it reaches the Purification Chamber and the chamber is incapable of cleansing it, or if the chamber itself has been compromised.

Brigitte asks why she lied about it. Zinri says that she says what she's told to say. That's her job, and up until a few minutes ago, Reinald and Brigitte were simply treated as civilians. Reinald says that whatever is happening here, they are trying to stop it, and that if she helps them and it goes badly, they will take the blame. Zinri thinks it over for a while, but then agrees.

She tells Brigitte and Reinald that the dam has been producing strange noises — mostly at night, when the arcane system cycles down. Not many are aware of that yet. As far as she knows, only Soren, Duncan and a few Arcanists know about it. Even she isn't supposed to know.

Reinald asks if they can get inside the Purification Chamber. For that they'll need permission from Soren and Duncan; during the middle of the day there are other Arcanists working. But Zinri interjects — bringing it to the Arcanists or the Guards would mean losing control of their investigation. Soren and Duncan are both here, the Arcanists are working, and simply walking in would lead to them being thrown out.

Their best bet is to sneak into the dam in the evening, when it cycles down just after shutting off. That's their best opportunity to sneak in — but there's one problem. That door would be locked. Reinald and Brigitte ask if Zinri has a key, which she does... but she can't just give it to them.

Eventually, Brigitte, Reinald and Zinri step outside, and Zinri says that she has to go back to work now. Zinri then... theatrically pretends to trip on a rock. Her keys drop to the ground, and... she doesn't pick them up. One of the dam's guards spots Zinri fall and rushes over to help her. She thanks him with some motherly flirtatiousness, and promises to bake him a cake.

Zinri leaves, but Reinald and Brigitte know that she could be keeping an eye on them.

Reinald & Brigitte | Afternoon | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

With time to kill before meeting up with Aveline, they walk the lakeshore. The fishing docks are abandoned. The fishing spots further along are empty. Except for one. A large bearfolk has built himself a lounge chair out of wood and is fishing with complete contentment, unaware of or unbothered by the prohibition.

His basket holds several fish caught that morning. Reinald asks if he can examine them — yet nothing seems visibly wrong. He's fishing further away from the dam, upstream where the current comes down from the mountains. Reinald tells him, helpfully, that contaminated fish from near the dam has been making people sick and go violent. The bear man's eyes go wide.

"Oh no... That is baddddd..."

Reinald elaborates — people eating it and hurting each other, that kind of thing. The bearfolk begins packing up with considerable speed. Several gold coins fall from his pouch in the rush. He leaves them, and he leaves the fish behind. He is gone within minutes. Brigitte picks up the ten gold that he dropped. Neither of them comments on it.

For a moment, Brigitte and Reinald realize that this bearfolk, or others, must have sold the fish to people in the city. Walking back, Reinald tells her about what he sensed, and they discuss the 'small men coming from the water' mentioned by Bromm earlier that day.

When Brigitte shares her side of what she saw in the sewers — a strange green glow that looked like an eye — Reinald realizes that she was the one he saw leaving from the sewers! He pushes up his sleeve and shows her the gem encased in the Niðavellirian metallic arm. She looks at it for a long moment before looking away. The Beast Within murmurs something akin to "Betrayal..."

Eventually, Brigitte and Reinald decide to meet up with Aveline again, leaning against the upper railing of the dam like tourists, watching the water. She spots them coming from the lakeshore. Reinald and Brigitte say nothing about the bearfolk. She asks how it went.

Reinald tells her about the crack, the seeping water, the smell of it, the location directly below the purification chamber, Zinri and her scrying eye, the quiet understanding they reached, and the key which they now have.

She adds what she got from Soren — more than she expected. Under the pressure of discussing structural warranties and supply contracts, he let slip that the dam has been producing irregular noises for some time, which matches what Zinri said.

Not mechanical noise, not the sound of the water. Something else. He described it the way someone describes a thing they have decided not to fully think about. She didn't push. She didn't need to.

Aveline tells the others that she will return to the city tonight and probably come back in two days under the guise of following up on that initial inspection. It gives them cover and keeps her out of whatever Reinald and Brigitte will be doing at night. Aveline warns them not to do anything that can't be explained away, which is the closest she gets to saying "be careful."

They collect the horses and ride toward the Needlethorne farm to kill some time until the evening comes around.

Reinald, Brigitte & Aveline | Late Afternoon/Early Evening | 23rd of Leaffall 248 A.T.C

The Needlethorne Farm sits lower than the road, which explains why the water is always threatening to catch up with it. The family have managed this by maintaining their own small dam at the edge of the property — a modest thing compared to the great Alluran Dam upstream, built by hand according to Bromm, raised twice since then according to the waterline. It does its job quietly, holding back the slow creep of the rising reservoir, and the family has learned to read it the way farmers read weather — by sound, by feel, by small signs that something is either right or slightly less right than yesterday. The sluice is checked regularly. The stonework is patched when it needs patching. It is not grand engineering. It is just a wall between the farm and the water, and for a long time that has been enough.

Roswyn has early supper ready when they arrive — nothing elaborate, just what the farm produces, but warm and plentiful. She sets places at the outdoor table where Bromm is already sitting with a cup of tea. Supper is quiet at first. Roswyn asks about the dam, whether their inspection went smoothly. Reinald says it was informative, but not much else.

It is Brigitte who asks about the water level — whether it's always been this high around the farm, whether anything has changed recently. Roswyn thinks for a moment. It's been rising slowly for decades, she says, the dam upstream backing it up gradually.

But the last few weeks have been different. The little dam at the edge of their property has been working harder than usual. The family has had to check the sluice gates twice in the past ten days when she normally checks them once a month.

Bromm says the water "talks" more now. Roswyn tries to redirect the conversation, thinking that her grandfather is just confused. Yet Reinald asks what he means. More voices, he says eventually. It used to be quiet at night. Now it isn't.

Reinald asks if it's "the metal men coming from the water."

Bromm looks at him with sudden clarity — one of those brief windows that come and go. Yes, he says. They come up from the water. They don't come to the farm. They go toward the big stone wall, and then they go back under. He's watched them from the porch three times now.

But it seems that the rest of their family thinks that old Bromm is merely confused...

Roswyn doesn't dismiss it this time. She looks at the table for a moment and then says that she's heard things too — not voices, more like a low resonance in the ground, the kind of vibration that you feel in your boots before you hear it with your ears. Always at night. Always in the direction of the dam. But nobody else seems to hear it, so she thought it was just in her head.

They finish supper. Roswyn clears the plates, checks on her grandfather, and shows them to the barn, where they can stay for the night. Dry and swept, a lantern hanging from the post, and bedrolls that have clearly been prepared with some care. She tells them the family will be back from the far fields before dawn with the sheep and cows.

Aveline, needing to return to the city, says her goodbyes. She shakes Roswyn's hand, nods to Bromm, and rides back toward the city.

... ... ...

The sun is gone by the time they saddle up. The farm is quiet behind them — Bromm and Roswyn inside. Brigitte and Reinald ride back down the road toward the dam without much said between them. Reinald checks the key in his pocket. Brigitte keeps her eyes on the road.

Time to find out what's going on at the dam at night...