Grugg pulled a face. There were often many things that he could be blamed for at any given time. Usually involving property damage or missing food. He had only just arrived in this rather sad looking village, and hadn’t had a chance to break anything - so the accusation of the old man was somewhat unfair.

“I think you are mistaken,” Bart replied, his brow furrowed and hand moving dangerously close to his dagger. “We have never been here.”

“Devils always come from the woodland, espousing lies and looking like… well, like whatever you three are supposed to be.” He gestured vaguely toward them. “Hellspawn!”

The wizard looked confused, not being too dissimilar to the one giving them a browbeating, other than being slightly less unkempt and muddy.

Gregor wasn’t even facing the seated accuser, instead his arms were crossed and he was glaring off further in to the village. “Let’s just go find someone with a better head on their shoulders.”

“Hmm.” Grugg grunted and turned away, his eye lingering on the wild man. It wasn’t like him to skip out on a chance to wow someone onto their side, but until he had an idea of what was truly going on here, he’d save his energy.

The wrinkled man shook in his rocking chair, but didn’t make an effort to stop them or chastise them further.

“Hope man was outlier,” the cyclops eventually murmured. It wasn’t right to be just outside and lying. Most criminals hid away when they did it.

“Yes. I’m not sure my social energy could take many more hits like that.” Bart was looking up at the sky. Clouded and grey, the parting of the trees allowed a little more light down into the village, but it was still unnaturally drab.

Gregor looked like he was biting his tongue on a retort, but instead settled for seething to himself.

With Grugg’s massive presence, it didn’t take them long to be noticed by the other gathered villagers. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned to glare at them as the trio approached. Basic benches were arranged to face what looked like a small stage, where currently two figures stood. Utilizing his best forced smile, the cyclops waved at them all.

“Who are you?” A man atop the stage asked, his voice carrying easily over the heads of the crowd to greet them.

“Grugg!” Grugg said.

“Who sent you, Grugg?” A woman was beside the speaker.

The Detective narrowed his single eye. Both of them were hard to make out clearly, despite being less than thirty feet away. The fog wasn’t that dense, surely? The man, short wiry hair atop a shrewd face, was dressed in a drab gray suit. While the woman wore a dress of similar plain color, her hair was a fiery red that reminded Grugg of Claudia. Her face didn’t have any of the kindness of the clothesmaker, however, and she looked rather insulted at their presence.

“I’m not sure how earnest we should be,” Bart murmured out the side of his mouth. “But we might be out of options.”

“Always be deceitful,” Gregor disagreed. While his arms were crossed still, they had sunk lower on his torso, just in case he had to make a grab for his whip and dagger.

“We are…” Grugg licked his lips “…interested in stagecoach.”

Not entirely a lie or the truth.

The man on the stage grimaced, but otherwise held a pretty good poker face. “We don’t really have those here. They get stuck in the mud.”

Bart squirmed around awkwardly under the unrelenting glare of everything there. “Crowd work sure is easier when you’re beating them up.”

“Is that option?” Grugg tilted his head to the side.

Gregor sighed and stepped a little closer. “Where is the best place to get food around here?”

A figure stood up among the crowd. In a drab apron and pale dress, a woman in her middle ages. “I can host you for a meal if that’s what you seek, strangers.” She leveled a shaking finger back to their left. “I’ll come to you once we’re done with the meeting that you’re interrupting.”

“Of course,” Bart bowed low. “Our apologies.”

Gregor just pulled a face and turned away to go where the woman had pointed them off to, Grugg giving the watchful eyes a wave before he joined the other two.

“Anyone else getting a really… cult vibe or something?” The wizard adjusted his hat as his brow remained furrowed.

“See any faces you wanted to steal?” Gregor grinned. “We are being led right to their large cooking pot, ser Hat.”

Grugg grunted. It wasn’t like him to judge people on first appearances, unless they were directly committing a crime—in which case they’d be going straight to punch-town—but the whole mood of the place was off. Unlike anything he had come across so far.

Perhaps in an unnecessary boost to the ratman’s ego, they stopped as they reached the house that had a large cooking pot outside. Grugg peered inside. Currently empty, and the dried logs underneath were unlit.

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“Who’s first in then? Ser Wizard?” Gregor grinned from ear to ear, his red eyes bright.

“If it gets me away from your incessant jabbing quicker, sure. Plus, it wouldn’t even fit Grugg.”

The cyclops frowned and looked back at the large pot. He was muddy, sure, but he wasn’t in that desperate need of a bath. Plus, it would hinder the ability for it to be used to make food - and that was the most important thing right now.

“Grugg feel like…” His blue eye looked slowly around the village. Some of it was still obscured by gray fog. “Danger is soon.”

They followed his gaze, breaking away from the evil glares they were giving each other. It was unnaturally quiet, considering there was some kind of village meeting nearby.

“There’s no noise,” Bart put their thoughts into words. “Even through the woods, there were no birds or… anything, really. Just the smell of damp foliage and the slight chill.”

“Maybe is cursed,” Grugg said in a hushed tone. “By a witch, or demon.”

The wizard shook his head. “We’re getting too far ahead of ourselves. How will the other two feel if we made it ten minutes before going off the deep end and had destroyed this otherwise normal, just creepy, village?”

Gregor tilted his head. “I think they’d say-“

----------------------------------------

“For the love of all that is holy, whyyy?” Claudia groaned and deflated into the uncomfortable chair.

“I did warn you it would start off quite dry.” Peony leaned against a table in the break room. “Only thing worse than paperwork is having it all read back by a completely exhausting and monotone voice. No offence, Kietan.”

The aged and bespectacled man grumbled something to himself.

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t warn me.” Claudia tilted her head to observe the Investigator. “I just had to not be embarrassing, right?”

Peony nodded. “A task you have excelled at, even if you did yawn about three times.”

“Five.” Claudia smiled.

“But this is just the start. Once all the formalities are out of the way, various groups will be going over their individual casework. We may be requested to provide information on what happened at Helpart.”

The clothesmaker pulled a face. “I’ll have to speak?”

A wry smile spread across the pale Investigators face, but she said nothing.

----------------------------------------

Grugg and Bart stood in silence, tense and waiting for a response.

Gregor’s whiskers twitched, his eyes pitch black. His tongue rolled across his sharp fangs before he eventually spoke. “They are just sitting there in silence.” His eyes faded back to bright crimson, and he pulled a face.

“Like… nobody at all is speaking?” Bart rubbed at his forehead, stress creasing at his face.

The ratman shook his head.

“Grugg definitely thinks curse.” He tried to stand up taller to spy the gathering, but the fog and an awkwardly placed building blocked most of the view. “Need to gather more evidence.”

"We can talk to the woman once she comes over,” Bart reasoned. “Hopefully, get some answers from her. Can you not check them again, Gregor?”

“If I do it too often, my eyeballs with rupture out of my skull, ser Wizard.” He glared in addition to this statement.

Grugg leaned over. “How many times has happened, Gregor?”

The ratman bared his fangs and turned away from them both to cross his arms.

Movement caught Grugg’s peripheral, and he turned his eye to see what it was. Nothing was there though. Off to the right there was just two dull houses and fog. He grunted and slowly withdrew his club. “Thud thinks something watching us.”

Gregor unclipped his whip while the wizard nervously tapped the handle of his dagger.

They stood in tense silence for a handful of seconds that seemed to drag out, but nothing further caught their attention - before the sound of soft footsteps from the village center.

Out from the fog, the woman who had promised them food emerged. She walked with an odd gait, and her tired eyes darted over the three standing awkwardly.

“Heavens, you’re not going to eat me, are you?”

Grugg grinned sheepishly and put Thud away. “No. Look like taste bad.”

“Apologies.” Bart rolled his eyes. “We are a little on edge having been stranded here, the atmosphere is rather…"

“Pleasant, isn’t it?” she cooed. “It gets nicer in spring, but we make do.”

They watched as she shuffled past up to the doorway of the house, fumbling for a key.

“Ah,” Bart rubbed at the back of his head. “Regular village meeting? Again, apologies we intruded.”

“Oh yes, dear. Every day, we all gather up to go over the matters concerning the village.” She unlocked her front door and turned her head back to the trio. “It can get a bit heated sometimes, but it’s been good for us all. For us all.”

The wizard and Gregor exchanged glances while Grugg just nodded politely.

“I’ll just be a minute, dearies. Make yourself comfortable. Outside.” With that, she disappeared into the darkness of the building and closed the door.

Grugg turned to the side, something passing by his peripheral again. But nothing was there. None of the other villagers seemed to have moved from the meeting to anywhere they could be seen. It was very odd.

Turning back to the house, the woman hadn’t turned on a lantern or lit a candle. The windows were still pitch black, obscuring whatever lay inside. Very curious.

Slowly, he crouched down between the other two.

“You think lady is loading cannon?” he whispered, all too loudly.

“No,” Gregor said and shook his head. “I’m going to go spy. You two entertain our host.”

Before either of them could argue against it, he had turned and padded off, vanishing in between two of the buildings.

“That’s… not going to end well.” Bart deflated, already exhausted from the adventure. “Why does he always split the Party?”

“Maybe going to find Grugg some on-time food.” The cyclops stretched out and mimicked checking a wristwatch. While he had patience for a good meal, he didn’t fancy his chances here where everything seemed to be drab grays or fog. A good meal was vibrant, with sizzling meat and hearty vegetables. He couldn’t imagine what they might even grow here to eat.

“I’m going to send a Message to… Barry.” The wizard clasped his hands together and sighed. “Normally I’d send to Claudia or Peony, but I imagine they are in meetings and I’d hate to disrupt that.”

Grugg nodded, but was too busy thinking of the food he wasn’t enjoying to give a more succinct response.

“Anything you wanted to say? Barry can pass it on once he sees one of the ladies.”

“Uh, say Grugg very disappointed.”

Bart nodded slowly, waiting for more to come from that, but eventually accepted that as the whole answer. Closing his eyes, he raised his hands up near his mouth and began to whisper an incantation. Golden light pooled around his mouth before fading away, his eyes opening once more as his hands lowered.

“Barry can’t reply, but hopefully that went as planned.” He shrugged, clearly unhappy with his lack of confidence in spell-casting.

The door of the house swung open, startling them both, as the woman stepped half out.

“Are you demons using witchcraft?” she hissed, eyes narrowed.

Grugg shook his head. “No. Where food?”

“It’s just about to be served up,” she said as she licked slowly around her lips.

They both turned their heads to see dozens of figures in the fog now slowly making their way over to them.