Session: 1 January 2021 (continued)
The party arrived at Etholur early afternoon of their second day out of Pasont. They went directly to the mayor's house (one of the few two story buildings in the small town) and were able to directly see Mayor Trip Goodfellow. He was a well meaning and upbeat dwarf who had pulled the towns together to contract for the guild's support. He was happy to see the adventurers and brought them in to talk. He went over in detail what he knew had happened and why they had sought help from the adventurers. He did not, however, provide any new information, but he did say that we was fully in support of the party's mission and would help in any way. After giving the party details about how to get to the aviary the party left town and went to the aviary.
The aviary was not far outside of town to the east. It was an amazing facility with lots of magical pens for the birds. The caretakers obviously cared deeply for the birds and took pride and their care. The party met Gramira who was a huge human woman (likely with the orc blood in her), who with sorrow and pride showed them all the details around the crime.
The criminals came at night and apparently knocked out an elf worker named Peter who had been doing night research on the birds. When Peter came to 18 of the 23 owls were gone. These were a collection of owls from all over Alt and even far away from Alt. It appears that the criminals took Peter's key and were those able to take the birds out of the magical cage. It is unknown where that key is now. Additionally, a week or so after the incident Peter left saying his time with the aviary was over. Gramira does not know where he went, but has positive memories of Peter.
The staff found tracks outside the pen and made a clay cast of it. It clearly appears to have been kobolds and it appears that they left to the northwest. The party then guess where the criminals headed and followed their direction. They made it to the river which was shallow enough that the kobolds could have forded with a little difficulty. On the far side of the river were farms significantly spread out making it easy for the criminals to sneak between the farm lands and head back west.
The party headed back to Etholur and spent the night in the Draon's Tankard. There they asked around to see if anyone knew any more of these events. A farmer mentioned that his farm had also been raided with chickens and pigs being stolen. He lives just north of the road leading back to Ryn. The party mentioned they would stop by. The party also learned that their had been a smithy in Deltholur that had been broken into and zinc and cobalt had been stolen. Additionally, there was a tanner that had been broken into and it was unclear what had been stolen there.
Without any further issues the party retired to bed and slept out the night.