Keatinstown was a small backwater village. Zephyr ran around asking if there were any healers and we were directed to an inn called Woaden’s Stables. As the name suggested, the place doubled as the town’s stables and was run by a man named Woaden. The healer there was an Aasimar named Phelenia. She was almost disturbingly optimistic and after healing Olrok proposed that we all work together as an adventuring group. She hadn’t realized Olrok just met Zephyr and I or that I have only known Zephyr for a week or two. But, she said she would help teach me magic and I had been planning on developing my fighting skills before returning home. It seemed like an interesting opportunity, so I said yes. Olrok and Zephyr seemed keen on the idea as well, which kind of surprised me. We checked out the posted help wanted bulletin boards and considered some of the bounties. Phelenia preferred not to kill people, which left two good options: finding a local burglar or tracking a quickling thief. We discussed going after the quickling thief for the larger bounty, but eventually decided upon the burglar to see if we can work together well.

We spent most of the day getting prepared and gathering information. Olrok got a new axe, Zephyr a new sling, and I asked people around town about the thief while Phelenia just hung out at the tavern. The market shopkeeper, whose name I did not get, mentioned his safe was broken into and a locket with a rose on it was taken along with other valuables. He suspected a gnome named Blink Darkmoon, who had been acting suspicious. Blink was at Woaden’s when I returned there, and I got to speak to Blink briefly. He was really interested in some sort of dwarven key that will unlock a vault containing treasures and books. He had been making treks into the woods but does not seem like the type to be a thief. While talking to him, a traveling bard named Zank Zank entered and started playing music and orating stories. Olrok joined the tavern bard when he went back to music, and his contributions on the drums was surprisingly quite good. I was not expecting that from him and was rather impressed. Zephyr tried to join in after but did not make the music any better. We passed more of the time with some mead and stew and went to investigate as nightfall began.

We knocked on the door of Todor Juankeem. He was a pleasant gnome who had been robbed three nights prior. He mentioned the burglar had picked a door that had been locked from both the inside and out. There shouldn’t have been a way to get to the inside lock, but it had somehow been done. He also said a magic cloak that he had received from an adventurer family member of his had been stolen amongst other things. The other important lead we got from Todor was that only a few homes had not yet been broken into. The Ribbletons were the only family home remaining and the blacksmith had also yet to be robbed. Zephyr checked the locks at Todor’s home, and I tried to check the tracks around his house for any clues, but the three days since the crime and subsequent foot traffic made it impossible.

As a group we decided to stake out the Ribbletons. I was of the mindset that they were the next victim, but Zephyr thought one of their family was the burglar. Only Phelenia and Olrok could see in the dark, so I had to sit in silence and await their instruction. I hid in the shadows near the house for several hours. Shortly after midnight, Zephyr zipped off for a different perspective and then Olrok charged out of his hiding place. A cloaked man ran from the two of them, but Zephyr was a quickling and faster than almost anyone else alive. He tripped up the suspect as it tried to run and Olrok and I were able to catch up and restrain him. The cloaked figure was an elf wearing what Olrok recognized as the magical cloak belonging to Todor. We secured the elf and brought him over to Todor. Todor recognized the suspect as Mr. Ribbleton, a halfling. “Mr. Ribbleton” proclaimed that we tackled him outside his house for no reason and should let him go. Apparently as we walked over to the Juankeem house in the dark, the elf managed to change his identity and clothes.

We were about to walk the man over to the Ribbleton house, but then decided that would not work as the elf would change appearances yet again. Instead, I kept the man restrained as Phelenia and Olrok went and got the actual Mr. Ribbleton. They arrived with the real Mr. Ribbleton, and Todor and Mr. Ribbleton were able to confirm that we had the right suspect in custody. Deciding we had enough of this nonsense, we started hauling the suspect to Woaden’s to find out where we needed to take him for jail. On route, the suspect disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reappeared right next to me looking like me. The ruse didn’t last. Olrok asked the two of us which animal we had been scouting for when we found him, and the suspects wrong answer outed him. We re-restrained him and brought him to Woaden’s. Woaden’s had a singular jail cell in it and the Woaden paid out the bounty on the spot. As a group we were happy to have our first bounty be a success and decided that next day we could try something a bit more challenging.