Pugmire: An Innocent Cat

Tonight we played a Pugmire one-shot! Arf arf! Our characters: 

• Petunia Pibble, Artisan/Pointer. Petunia is a country dog, from the village of Ellendonk. She is inquisitive to fault, and wants to learn about everything. 
• Peppa Pappilon, Shepherd/Companion. Peppa is an Acolyte of the Church of Man, and travels all around preaching the Code to those that listen. She is also incapable of staying clean; mud just seems to call to her.
• Douglas Canaan, Ratter/Herder. Douglas runs a shop in Riverwall, and sells weapons and...other items. He's been known to fence stolen goods, and just can't seem to stop himself from pinching little items.
• Dazolm "Dire" Newfoundland, Guardian/Fettle. Dire is very large dog, and joined a criminal gang fairly young to help put food on the table for his family. He left the gang and stole the boss' special obsidian dagger, and while he's not officially a criminal anymore, he's still very much rough and tumble. 
• Gromp, Ratter/Mutt. Gromp grew up in Riverwall and ran with a bunch of petty thieves and street kids. He's still a cutpurse when necessary, but he steals to help out his community and nothing is more important to him than his neighborhood. 

On this particular morning, Peppa is ouside Granny Sue's (a tavern in the poor district of Riverwall), preaching and handing out leaflets. A police dog approaches her and asks her if she knows a cat named Kadjit Brykovi; she does. Kadjit is a convert to the Church of Man, and is a friend of hers. Kadjit actually made the symbol of the Church that Peppa wears. 

Kadjit, it seems, is in jail, and has asked to talk to Peppa. The police dog leads her to the guardhouse, and Peppa is led into the cells to talk to her friend. Kadjit is in bad shape. He is disheveled and his robes are bloodied. Peppa learns that Kadjit was found in an alley with the bodies of two dead police dogs, and he is being charged with their murder. Kadjit insists that he is innocent of this crime, and Peppa believes him. He says that he was walking home and felt a prick in the back of his neck (he thought it was a flea) and then woke up later in that alley. 

Peppa notes that Kadjit has not been given bedding or water, and demands to speak to the guard captain. The captain, Dante German, tells Peppa that Kadjit will be tried for these crimes, but Peppa insists that he is innocent. Dante tells her that she's welcome to testify as a character witness, and Peppa demands that Kadjit be given the same respect as any other prisoner that has not been declared guilty. 

As she leaves, a small dog in a blue hood approaches her. Peppa recognizes Princess Yosha Pug, but the princess gestures for her to stay quiet. Yosha tells Peppa that she doesn't believe Kadjit is guilty, but that the whole situation - a cat accused of murdering two police dogs - has the potential to turn political very quickly. If it does, it won't matter what the truth actually is. Yosha can't investigate this herself, but perhaps Peppa could look into it?

Peppa agrees, and heads back to Granny Sue's to find some help. She is approached by Dire, who saw her getting led away by police and wants to check in. She explains the situation to Dire, and also Petunia, who overhears, and then notices that Granny Sue is wearing a black armband.

Peppa approaches the bar and asks Sue what happened, and Sue tells her that her grandniece, Vera Weimaraner, was one of the police dogs killed. Peppa very delicately tells Sue that she doesn't believe Kadjit is guilty, and Sue, while she doesn't necessarily trust a cat, does trust Peppa and agrees to reserve judgment. Douglas and Gromp are sitting at the bar talking business, and also offer to help - they both know Kadjit from around the way. 

Gromp, not the most patient of dogs, leaves and heads to the alley where the bodies were found. He climbs to the roof and scouts the alley - it's a dead end, great for an ambush. He hops down and finds bloody bootprints, all from fairly small shoes, which unfortunately doesn't disprove the idea that cats were involved. He also finds a door leading into a storefront, but seems to recall that a gang was using this place as a base. Not wanting to break into a gang hideout, he heads back towards the bar and meets the others on the way there. 

Gromp tells them what he found, and they all five of them go have a look. It's like Gromp said - small bootprints, locked door, blind alley. It occurs to Douglas that the Unseen could make a dog (or a cat) do something horrible like this, and so Petunia casts her Smell Magic spell, but doesn't detect anything. The dogs decide to split up. Douglas is going to go and visit a friend of his at the docks (Gromp goes along with), while the others go back to the jail to talk to Kadjit again. Petunia wants to smell him.

At the docks, Douglas talks to her contact, Billy Bulldog. Billy tells her that as far as he knows, the gang that was using that storefront was the Nippers, a gang of smaller dogs that are willing to (among other things) take on violence-for-hire. He was under the impression they'd abandoned that building, though. Gromp knows one of the Nippers, a fellow named Clyger Fox. He sends word to Clyger that folks are looking for the Nippers and that they should be careful. 

At the jail, Peppa notes that Kadjit seems to be in pain. She casts a spell to heal him, and is livid when she realizes one (or more) of the guards might have worked him over. Petunia sniffs him and doesn't smell magic or Unseen. She also realizes that she has a relative here - her second cousin's husband's brother's nephew, Patrick Pibble! She asks to speak to Patrick, who pulls some strings and gets put on prisoner detail, and agrees to make sure that no one hurts Kadjit. 

The characters reconvene, and Gromp puts out the question: Who would stand to benefit from a cat taking the fall for the murder of police dogs? He and Petunia both come to the same realization: The Friends of Man, a hardline group of dogs that often foments stress between species. They might well have hired the Nippers to kill the dogs and frame Kadjit. Kadjit, after all, is a cat who converted to the Church, which would absolutely piss off the Friends.

They decide to search the inside of the storefront and try and find some hard evidence. Dire smashes in the door, and the characters search the room. They find more bloody footprints, and then Dire picks up a chair and feels a jab in his paw. He raises up the paw to reveal a dart, and starts to feel woozy. Peppa tries to heal him with herbs and manages to get him on his feet, but he's still dizzy. Petunia, meanwhile, finds a trap door going down. Gromp opens it and zips down, running ahead (Gromp never has time to plan). 

Gromp wishes, however, that he planned a bit, as he comes face to face with a giant hairless rat! The dire rat bites him on the shoulder and he turns tail and runs, calling for the others. Douglas drops down and and spots two of these huge rats closing in, and shoots one with an arrow. The others drop down; Petunia fires a spell at the rats but misses. Peppa blesses the dogs, and Dire draws his greatsword and attacks!

Unfortunately, he's still dizzy. He misjudges the height of the ceiling, hits it with his sword, and falls on his back. Gromp sneaks behind a rat and buries his hand ax in its back, and Douglas slides in and slits its throat, killing it. Petunia charges at the remaining rat, but trips over the dead one and lands on the corpse. Gromp stabs the other rat, Douglas flings his knife at it (but misses), and Dire finally pulls himself to his feet. He lands a blow with his greatsword and chops the rat in half!

The threat abated, the characters can collect their wits. Peppa heals Dire, Douglas and Gromp search the rats, and Petunia tracks them door the tunnel and finds a nest! Fortunately, the nest is empty of more rats, but she finds the remains of leather armor, clothes, boots, and a broken blowgun. Snagged on one of the rats' teeth, Gromp finds a scrap of red fabric. Douglas identifies it as probably from a cloak. The characters believe they've found the remains of one of the Nippers, and they've found how Kadjit was poisoned. 

They go back up, and find Clyger Fox waiting for them. Clyger tells Gromp that if he'd known they were going down there, he'd have warned them about the rats. Gromp tells Clyger that they think that rats killed the police dogs (that's obviously not true, but it means Gromp has some deniability). Gromp and Clyger decide to head to Granny Sue's, while the others go to the jail to present the evidence to Captain German. 

German, after examining what they've found and doing some analysis of his own (including having a healer look at a puncture on the back of Kadjit's neck) agrees - the Nippers seem to have been responsible for killing the police dogs and trying to frame Kadjit. He releases Kadjit, and they all head back to Granny Sue's for some food and drink, celebrating the fact that Kadjit is, in fact, innocent of this crime.