Big Murder in Little Smirchley

* HuoFeng
* Quintous
* Ogdobs
* Sigismund Button (partially)
* Kiva (partially)

**Big Murder in Little Smirchley** is a one shot adventure, set in the small town of Little Smirchley. Alston Knackle is murdered in cold blood and an investigation to prove is innocence is carried out. It features the debut of Ghademesi anti-hero HuoFeng, harengon monk Quintous and crazy goblin wizard Ogdobs. Characters such as Sigismund Button and Kiva also made an appearance.

## Featured Characters

### The Team

* HuoFeng
* Quintous
* Ogdobs
* Sigismund Button (partially)
* Kiva (partially)

### New

* Alston Knackle
* Amon Worship
* Taman Helder
* Kathra Brynhelm
* Bunton Knackle
* Darcy Bunting
* Mary Harlen
* Steven L Crimsilver
* Rollo Liadon
* Lord Liadon

### Returning

* Baz Spoon
* Ulrich Wolfsbane

### Deaths

* Alston Knackle
* Taman Helder

## The Story

### Act I - Scrapping in Spoons

Ogdobs and Sigismund are talking in The Red Leonin tavern, a spoons location setup recently by CEO Baz Spoon. An orc customer walks up to Ogdobs and confronts him, being prejudice and racist as many are the folk in the town. Luckily, half dragonborn HuoFeng and his newly made harengon friend Quintous arrive in time to scare off the orc, and the four begin to chat. Baz speaks with the four and offers them drinks. HuoFeng requests Rice Wine, a popular drink found in Ghadames. Sadly, Baz states they don't stock it, but will happily put it on his next order should they return another time. The half-dragonborn reluctantly requests the largest glass of Ale possible.

The orc that previously antagonised Ogdobs is heard shouting that his wallet was missing, and this is where Kiva, the rogue tiefling from Minerva, introduced herself to the four. The five of them have a few drinks, Sigismund struggles to handle his drink and spews a little, feeling light headed. Quintous applies his limited medicinal knowledge and gives Sigismund a few slaps on the back and a little bit of pep talk, the halfling comes round and feels better. HuoFeng necks his unbelievably large glass of Ale so well that a group of Dwarves in the corner cheer for him and buy everyone a free round.

After some more small talk, introductions and in between, another tiefling timidly enters the bar to some stares and more racism. Amon Worship greets Baz and asks for a drink. Shortly after, a Gnome and some of his orc friends enter the bar and begin to confront Amon, things begin to get heated. HuoFeng doesn't like the disturbance of peace, and proceeds to grab both the Gnome and Tiefling by the scruff of their necks, sit them and and try to restore order to The Red Leonin, completely forgetting about the fact that the Gnome, named Alston Knackle, had four orc friends backing him up.

Being a complete sigma, HuoFeng realises he's above such a potential conflict, and convinces all but Ogdobs to just walk away, but the goblin couldn't resist and proceeded to magically bitch slap one of the orcs, resulting in a tavern brawl like no other. Quintous round house kicked Alston unconscious, HuoFeng punched nearly all the teeth out of an orc with his bare hands, shortly before Quintous dropkicked the brute out of the Red Leonin's front window. Kiva pickpocketed the fallen in the midst of the fight. Ogdobs used his chaotic magic to add fuel to the fire and Sigismund put on a pathetic display of combat prowess, failing to insult the enemy with his so called "vicious mockery" and clumsily dropping his dagger when about to stab an orc. The fight ended in a victory for the misfits.

Baz was appalled at the mess caused by the brawl, and wanted the party gone by sunrise. He offered them a room should they leave first thing in the morning. They agreed and went to bed.

### Act II - A Rude Awakening

Baz greeted the players early in the morning. HuoFeng and Sigismund were awake earlier, one doing sit-ups for an hour and the other brainstorming ideas for his next big production. The five were all advised of local watchmen waiting downstairs to have a word with them. They went downstairs and greeted the watchmen. The guards advised of the murder of Alston Knackle, the gnome they fought the night before, and that Amon was chief suspect. He was being held for questioning and he requested the five go see him as soon as possible. The group obliged and followed the guards.

Whilst traversing the town of Little Smirchley, Quintous and Ogdobs purchased some apples from a local salesman. These apples were pitched as the "most juiciest scrumptious shiny red apples in all of Emberus!". They did not disappoint.

Upon arriving at the Prison, the fat guard greeted them and directed them to Amon's cell. Amon looked defeated and desperate for help, advising the players of information and pleading for their assistance to prove his innocence. He stated that the was being held for questioning because Alston came to Amon for help in smuggling someone out of town, however, despite Amon being a contraband smuggler, he refused to smuggle a living person. The party, at this point led by HuoFeng, agreed to help and set off to find the real murderer of Alston. Amon suggested speaking to Baz, as he was the owner of the town's tavern, he surely would have heard something right?

The head of the town guard, Taman Helder, found the team leaving the prison cell and laughed at them for trying to help Amon. He revealed that Amon wasn't telling the whole story, such as omitting the fact that he was present around the time and place of the murder. Taman also confirmed that a horseshoe was seemingly used to kill Alston. Seeming dead set in the idea that a "dirty tiefling" and criminal like Amon was the murderer, Taman stated that he would "swing tonight" no matter what.

Feeling hungover and unwell, Sigismund decided to return to the Red Lion to rest for the day, as he didn't feel like he was in "showstopping shape". Quintous spoke to Baz over a beer and managed to understand that the murder happened near the local blacksmith's in the night and that a horseshoe was found near the scene of the crime, seemingly confirming that a horseshoe was the item used to kill Alston.

The party, now four, made their way to Kathra Brynhelm's blacksmith forge. The door was closed. In a rush to find answers and stop an innocent man from swinging, HuoFeng confidently opened the door, only to be greeted by shouting and a child being flung across the room towards them. The half dragonborn tried to catch the child but just missed. Out from the darkness came Kathra, the blacksmith. Ogdobs accused the tough female dwarf of murdering Alston for literally no reason, however Kathra provided an alibi which checked out with the group. Kathra was present in The Red Leonin the previous night, and got very drunk. Quintous proceeds to mention the weapon used to kill Alston, the horseshoe and how Kathra (as the village blacksmith) is responsible for forging them, thus leading the party to her. The blacksmith revealed that Mary Harlen, one of the local stable handles, requested new horseshoes as soon as possible, like she was leaving in a hurry. More answers could be found at the Stables, it would seem. As they were leaving, the child quickly called them over, whispering to the party that Alston was attempting to smuggle Mary out of town, with urgency and high risk.

In the late afternoon, the band of misfits arrived at the Stables, anticipating to meet Mary for some questioning. However they were greeted by Mary's close friend Darcy Bunting. In true Ogdobs fashion, the goblin immediately accused the stable handler of being the murderer. Realising how unproductive and annoying the goblin had become, HuoFeng proceeded to grab Ogdobs and hold him under his huge bicep. Ogdobs tried to talk, but the half dragonborn covered his mouth with his huge hand. She revealed that Mary had been missing. Here, it was revealed that Mary had been catching the unwanted attention of the Lord's son Rollo Liadon, making her feel uncomfortable. However, Mary was also not stupid, and wasn't deterred by Rollo. It was here that is was also revealed that Alston and Mary were close, and Darcy even said that she was "surprised Alston never asked her out". Quintous was putting a love triangle theory together is his harengon thoughts, and thought it was a done deal. This was until Darcy mentioned that Mary let it slip of some treasure of Alston's being hidden in a forest north of Little Smirchley. HuoFeng asked Darcy of the last time she saw Mary, to which she answered that it was earlier in the morning, where Mary looked "visibly shaken and proceeded up to the Lord's manor". The questioning concluded, as the party seemed the only place left to go was the Lord's manor upon the small hill, overlooking the whole of Little Smirchley.

### Act III - Flaming Manor

Setting off for the Lord's manor, the party noticed that Kiva, the rogue tiefling who was seemingly with them all the way up to this point, had gone missing. Perhaps she left to go search for the treasure Darcy mentioned?

It was around the time of this realisation that a short cocky little detective named Steven L Crimsilver approached the remaining three, stating that he was hired by the Lord himself to investigate the murder and bring a true criminal forward to pay for the chaos. Steven was incredibly jumpy and accused the team of murder due to them: being minorities, fighting Alston the night before and just "looking shifty" to him. He barely let anyone get a word in and just ran his stupid mouth for nearly four minutes straight. This was until HuoFeng squared up to the shifty detective, towering over him with his sheer size and threatening him. Crimsilver's momentum was quickly brought to a crashing halt, as some liquid began to seep down his trousers and he carefully stepped away from the half dragonborn, never being seen again. A pathetic display from the detective, nearly matching the embarrassment of Sigismund's combat skills from the tavern brawl.

At the base of the small hill the manor was placed upon, Rollo and Mary could be seen arguing, the argument seemingly ended after Mary punched Rollo and ran inside, he followed her in. Outside the gates of the manor, HuoFeng attempted to break down the door, but got foot cramp on his run up to the door, resulting in the door almost tackling him. His ego was shattered, and he sheepishly sat down on the ground nearly to tears. Ogdobs noticed a window where he could see Rollo and Mary arguing inside further. He smashed the window and jumped in, the team following him.

The three remaining heroes confronted Mary and Rollo inside the large dining room, accusing them of the murder. A large set of armour stood and watched over the conversation. It was during the confrontation that everyone heard a loud thud from upstairs. Quintous slipped out of the conversation and went to the landing of the stairs, while HuoFeng and Ogdobs continued to argue with Mary and Rollo. At the top of the stairs, creeping out of the darkness, came a mortally wounded Taman Helder, who had his legs removed and was crawling to try and alert someone for help. Taman explained to Quintous that Mary is responsible for all of this. That she is greedy, controlling and will kill anyone or anything to cover up his crimes. He dies in Quintous's paws, the harengon closing the elf's eyes and granting him somewhat of a dignified death. Quintous stormed downstairs to find Mary.

Quintous entered the dining room, not saying a word, and threw his boomerang right for Mary. He just missed and accidentally knocked the log fire onto the wooden floor of the manor, thus starting a growing inferno. The time for talk was over. The three heroes began to fight the crazed woman. Quintous attempted to roundhouse kick the girl but overstepped into the flames, burning himself. He did however try again and land a kick, cracking the majority of her ribs. In a desperate attempt to stop the party, she pulled out her amulet and brought the aforementioned suit of armour to life. It was large and tough, towering over all the team. They tackled the overwhelming threat, Ogdobs being injured in the process. The flames continued to grow. HuoFeng shouted at a sobbing Rollo to run out of the building as it was becoming unsafe. He ran out of the burning manor to safety. Quintous and Ogdobs pushed the suit of armour into the ever-growing blaze and ran out of the now collapsing home of Little Smirchley's lord.

Outside, the sun was beginning to set. The smell of burning wood and smoke swarmed the party's senses. Through the smoke, men on horses could be seen arriving. Lord Liadon and his party greeted the players, in shock. Liadon was disgusted to find out that his son and a young girl he thought highly of were involved in the murder of a man he hired a detective to investigate. He promised the party that the wrongdoers will be punished "appropriately" for their crimes and named HuoFeng, Ogdobs and Quntious "The Heroes of Little Smirchley". He ordered his men to take Rollo (now his disowned son) and Mary away, paid each party member 100G each and invited them to the Red Leonin for celebratory drinks.

Arriving back at the Red Leonin, it was dark, but the tavern was full of regulars and merry people. The dwarves seen the night before raised their tankards to the new heroes of Little Smirchley. The team went to the bar to order their drinks, but we interrupted by the slamming down of an empty glass on the bar. A half-orc asked Baz for some "more of that new stuff" and Baz poured him a glass of freshly delivered Rice Wine. HuoFeng pogged to see that Baz actually got some of the Ghadamesi beverage and ordered a huge glass too. The half-orc looked at HuoFeng and shook his hand, introducing himself as Ulrich Wolfsbane. He said he's heard about what the party has done, saying it reminded him almost of himself a few years back, and that he could use a team of their "calibre". He says if they're interested to come find him. HuoFeng, Ogdobs, Quintous and the newly acquainted Ulrich all clash their glasses together, celebrating the end to their tale in Little Smirchley.

## Trivia

* This one-shot has the current largest group of playable characters, which is 5.
* This is the second one-shot to feature a final encounter in a manor that which burns down at the end. I think Ryan has a thing for burning manors lmao.