PEARLSIDE GAZZETTE
PENINSULA MAN BUTCHERED AND LEFT TO ROT. SURVIVOR TELLS HARROWING TALE OF MURDER AND KIDNAPPING!
Late last night a frightened woman was found in hysterics just outside of the town on the northern Merchant's Way. The local medicine woman was consulted and provided initial care. Once the woman was seen to be stable condition, the night watchman was able to take her statement.
The woman, a Ms. Jane Jennings said that she and her friend, Thickness Jones, were traveling on Merchant's Way about an hours foot travel out of town when approached by 2 merchants and their half-orc servant pulling their cart.
She warned the merchants that the road was dangerous, and offered them protection along the way. Jane said that her two other friends, Smalls Mackenzie, and a Lizardfolk named Uskuss, were hunting for food in the area. Jane says the merchants made a deal to trade part of their goods in exchange for protection and asked Thickness to get it from the cart.
At that point Jane says a fishman with a Trident leapt from the cart and impaled her friend. Almost at the same moment the half orc pulled an axe from the cart and cleaved Thickness almost completely in half. Jane had great difficulty while telling this story, and had to stop several times.
Jane, scared for her life tried to run and took an arrow to the back,and might have died except one of the merchants, or as she now recognized them, fully trained adventures healed her to keep her alive. One of her friends, Uskuss heard the commotion and came to help, but had no choice but to surrender to the much superior professionals. The adventures quarreled amongs themselves for a while before deciding to kidnap Jane and Uskuss. Jane was made to ride in the cart while Uskuss was forced to march ahead to "trigger any traps" as one of the madmen had said.
Jane's friend, Smalls had run to get help, and after about 30 minutes on the road the adventures stopped and one of them shot an arrow blindly into the darkness.
Jane says that her memory of the rest isn't great. She says a cloud of fog suddenly obscured everything and she just ran. She remembered hearing her friends voices, friends coming to save her.
Upon further investigation, the night watchman was able to confirm the location of the corpse of Thickness Jones. No other corpses were found, but it seemed that a crude campsite had been pitched in the middle of the road.
Descriptions of the adventures match descriptions of those involved in a drunken brawl the morning of the same day. It is suspected, though not confirmed, that the same group was involved harrassing a store clerk just past noon.
The murderous adventurers are still at large and are presumed to be armed and dangerous. Residents are strongly cautioned to avoid all contact. Please contact the Night Watchmen's office if you have any information.
Funeral services for Mr. Jones will be held on the Northfork Beach tomorrow evening.