Investigator Freeman takes notes while questioning the people in the tavern, no new leads are to be found though. He assigns Ken and I to check on the statuary while he looks for leads among the trader's guilds. Hopefully peter isn't one of those that have gone missing.
This town has gotten so big so fast that it's simple to believe how easy it is for someone to disappear without anyone noticing. People are constantly moving in and more houses and buildings are constructed to accommodate them all. I can't imagine that we'd be able to keep that up without the spells and magical items that the engineers use for construction. Although, those with a lot of money still hire builders for a hand crafted house. With so many new people coming in to town, why would someone target folks that have been around for a while, with contacts or schedules to keep.
It takes us a while to trek down to where Mr. Moldmaker's shop was reported to be. After asking for directions from the local patrol we find the place. It's down a dead end street, a well made sign declaring the 'Best fine metal statues, busts, and animate miniatures in the city.' There's an elderly gentleman looking into the window from the street occasionally knocking on the door and shouting for Peter. He stops when we approach.
“Excuse me, sirs. Would you happen to know if the owner of this shop has been around.” He looks around he is clearly worried about something.
“No, I'm afraid not. We were just looking for him ourselves. Do you know him?”
“Well, not exactly. I'm Harold Wordweaver, I started working with him several days ago, working minor enchantments into some of his smaller creations to let them animate into performing short repeating motions.” He gestures at the display window. One of the smaller silver sculptures depicts a warrior and a dragon each constantly attacking each other in a slow loop. The posture, and incredibly wasteful motions on the warrior's end give away the lack of experience the animator had watching men in actual combat. The warrior's shield has no straps... “But about four days ago he stopped opening up his shop. He never gave me a key, and so I've been coming here and calling for him and checking to see if he's opened up. You see I left an enchanted stone of mine in his workshop, it helps me channel my magics, and I really need it back.”
“Ken, question this fine gentleman, I'm going to see if there's any sign of breaking and entering.”
I circle around the building nothing strange in the alley to its left, but when I look around back there's a broken window and glass all over the floor. Second floor, that's a strange place for a burglar to break in from, there are certainly enough accessible windows on the ground floor here. The overall lack of security for a place dealing in fine metals is fishy. But now it looks like a crime scene, time to get in and take a look around.
“This is now a crime scene. I'm sorry Harold, but your stone might need to be held as evidence. Come by the guard house and you'll be able to learn how to get it back once it has been examined.”
“Blast it, I need that. Just hurry up will you, I can't work without that thing!” He tugs at his long white beard as he leaves, grumbling to himself.
“Door's locked, we're going to have to force our way in it looks like.”
I step back from the door and get ready to test the lock strength with a kick when Ken interrupts me.
“No, no, no, solid oak door, too thick for that sort of thing. You'll just hurt yourself.”
I raise an eyebrow, though my helmet probably makes the expression hard to read, “Really now, and what do you propose?”
Ken crouches down and withdraws something from his boot. A lockpick? Must be. He makes quick work of unlocking the door. “That was easy. Shouldn't someone making even pewter statues have a better lock?”
“Where did you pick that little skill up?”
Ken shifts uncomfortably, “Well let's just say that where I grew up, not knowing something like this was out of the ordinary.” He opens the door, and we go in to check the place out.
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