What we have here... is a failure to communicate

[telerib]

So...

Lots of shrieking and hitting and drama when Momma Gretta showed up in the bar where the PCs were, apparently looking for Toriad. Toriad was trying to get to her, she screamed when she saw Rinwald and tried a spell, Nicolette got in the middle, and Elianne stole sips out of everyone's glasses when they weren't looking. The Wilder witch tried a retreat but Nicolette overtook her and wrestled her into a different bar (and later, the painted wagon) for a conversation.

Her side of things is that she had tried to tie Toriad to a loa - a local spirit - to help him find and defeat the powers of the Sapphire Skull. Except that he flipped out halfway through the ritual and ran off. So rather than him calling on the loa, the loa calls on him - whenever it wants to. Ever since, he's been drinking rather than crusading. Bad horse! (The Wilders call those who host the spirits "horses," explaining the odd comments about horse hair from earlier).

Something "bad hoodoo" is afoot for New Year's - Gretta mumbled something about a sacrifice, and energies, and confused and unhappy spirits. Definitely bad, and set for New Year's, and tied up with the Skull.

The priestess of Mystra wanted a few days to try and help Toriad on her own, as he was not at all happy about the idea of letting Gretta finish her ritual. The group set off instead to find Stumpy and Co. to see about joining the Blue Skulls.

Stumpy took them to a warehouse and introduced them to Arnaud, his immediate boss. He was unconvinced that these travellers would offer much, but either Stumpy's good word, the party's noble bearing, or another charm spell by Rinwald convinced him otherwise. He gave them a name, a time and a place - beat this guy up (no broken bones) and leave him in the blind alley behind the Blue Crystal.

And here was where the communications breakdown occurred: Three party members saw the link between this set-up and what had happened to Professor Montore. One party member did not.

The mark - Jacques - was located easily enough. Nicolette lead the charge, announcing to the bar at large that "DuPree's pretty upset with you!" or something along those lines. She intentionally missed, expecting Rinwald to use a sleep spell to harmlessly subdue the man. But the mage was a little slow on the draw, and Jacques darted for the door. He nimbly put tables and chairs between him and Nicolette, which she was hard-pressed to avoid. Finally, Rinwald got his spell off and the guy stumbled to the floor, asleep.

They hauled him to the appointed alley. Three people climbed onto flanking roofs to watch; one concealed himself in waste barrels on the ground. They waited.

Within two hours, a snuffling and slapping, flapping sounds were heard. Black and glistening wetly in the dim starlight, a humanoid figure crept around the corner of the alleyway, making for the sleeping man. Three people were expecting this, and willing to sacrifice the unknown Jacques for the opportunity to follow the skin-changer back to its lair, or master, or wherever it would go next.

Nicolette came crashing down from the roof to fight the thing.

Without narrating a blow-by-blow of the battle: Jacques was roused and tried to run for it, but got taken down by Eliaanne's sling stones from the roof. The dwarven cleric and the human fighter eventually killed the skin-changer. Rinwald drug Jacques's body back to its proper spot in the alley, and Nicolette claimed a chunk of skinless torso as her very own.

Rinwald and Elianne, both angry at the sudden change and even reversal in plan, left to seek solace elsewhere (Rinwald from his three lady-friends, Elianne from Slim). Nicolette and Grath headed for Momma Gretta's with the skin-changer torso.

The witch woman was obviously alarmed by the corpse and insisted on drawing all manner of wards around it before she would talk about anything else. No, the pair were not at risk because they'd been bitten by it. But she stewed up some poultices to tie onto their wounds. Mended somewhat, they limped back to the inn on their own.

There would be words the next morning...