Cairn in springtime is lovely...EXCEPT FOR THE MURDER. Here's last time.
Our heroes just saved the life of a hapless beaver named Copky Ripplesplash. As the healer sits with him, the heroes continue their investigation. Ratatosk Longberry does some quick analysis of the poison, and determines that it's made of a particular fungus called "blackslime". The stuff grows on roots of trees, and it's not really useful for anything but poison.
They turn the logistics of the poisoning over in their fuzzy heads. They know someone must have slipped Copky the poisoned flask after he got his flask at the beaver lodge, but the beavers generally swim to the construction sites. They do a little tracking and Russelet Leatherwind finds a spot that looks like someone slipped into the water. The tracks are small - too small for beaver, but the tail marks indicate "rat" to him. They track the prints backwards, but lose them on the main footpath from town.
The heroes decide to split up. Snootabur Shadowbough and Russelet head to the market to talk to Ramp Truewhisker, a meerkat who forages for mushrooms and brings them to market. If anyone has been asking about blackslime, he should know about it. Meanwhile, Rumdiggle Sunsong and Ratatosk head to the Root to talk to Ripark, since he too is a fung-guy.
Ripark, after listening to Ratatosk's rapid-fire repartee, reports rather riveting revelations. Turns out there's a spoke in the Underground that comes out near the Lodge, nearby which there's a pocket of space under an old oak tree. It's near the river, so it floods sometimes. After it floods, it's a good spot to harvest blackslime, if one were inclined to do so.
Snoot and Russ talk with Ramp, who hasn't had anyone ask about blackslime ("why would anyone want that stuff?"), but come to think of it, he did see a tree up by Professor Puddleleaf's Observatory that had a bunch of lichen scraped off. That particular lichen isn't very useful except as an antidote to fungal poisons - like blackslime.
The Knights meet up and decide to head out to the Observatory to investigate. They arrive and look around the place, Russ checks in the windows, but they don't see anything suspicious. Ratatosk casts Speak with the Small and chats with a little frog, who reveals that there have been people coming and going, but they're doing it through the water. The frog leads Snootabur (the strongest swimmer of the group) under the water and through a tunnel up into the basement of the Observatory. Of course there's a water entrance; Puddleleaf is a beaver.
Snoot surfaces and sees that people have been sleeping down here - she sees three little nests, probably made by rats. But worse, she sees Ladd Ringtail's missing bow leaning in the corner! She creeps up the stairs and listens, and hears a voice:
"This is just a cluster. That beaver didn't die! Now we need to wait until he's alone and finish him off. Yes, the Knights have to be dealt with, too, but that's not the most pressing thing right now." There's a pause, and then: "Damn, they're outside! Go out through the tunnel. I'll make sure they don't see you."
Snoot rushes back through the tunnel and informs the others - quickly - about what happened. Russ takes to the skies to watch the doors, while the others prepare for someone to emerge into the water. Ratatosk casts a spell to make the seaweed all tangly, and someone swims into it, but pulls himself free and starts swimming down the river. Ratatosk keeps pace in the trees, but the water is murky and he can only see that whoever this is, they're large.
But there's large, and then there's Rumdiggle Sunsong. Rummy is a powerful shifter and has now achieved the Heart-Shape. She turns into a whole-ass bear and smacks the offender out of the river like a salmon. He goes flying through the air, hits a tree, and falls to the ground - and the Knights realize it's Knuckles, the badger bodyguard who works for Moriarty Sprit.
Meanwhile, Russ echolocates and senses someone coming from the Observatory, but sound seems to slide off them and he can't quite get a bead. He fires sleep arrows at the mysterious person, but misses. He flies down to check what happened, and something clunks him on the back of the head. Everything goes black.
Knuckles isn't going down without a fight! Snoot fires rope arrows and ties him to a tree, and Ratatosk throws some sleeping draught in his face, but he just swishes it around and spits it out. He breaks the rope and lurches forward, punching at Snoot, but Rummy-bear steps on him and pushes him down. He struggles, and Rummy is surprised to find that he might actually be strong enough to free himself, but then Ratatosk blows a handful of sneezing powder in his face and he starts violently sneezing. That's enough of a distraction for Snoot to tie him up properly this time.
Snoot and Ratatosk run off to check on Russ, and find him lying motionless at the foot of a tree. Ratatosk rushes over to help and is caught in a snare, which whips him up into the branches (which would be a bigger deal if he weren't a squirrel). Something strikes at Snoot, but Snoot senses it coming and whips around with her staff. The strange shape battles Snoot with a dagger, and then a sword, while Snoot tumbles out of the way and fires arrows.
But then Ratatosk casts Thornsting and the culprit is revealed: Moriarty Sprit! He snarls at them and rolls back into the woods, vanishing. They check Russ - he's out cold, but otherwise unharmed.
Meanwhile, Rummy-bear lugs Knuckles to the Citadel and changes back to herself. She explains to Juffin Longbottom what's happened, and he and the guards take Knuckles away. Rummy changes into a weasel and scampers back to the others, but by the time she gets there Moriarty is gone.
The characters now know who they're facing, but they are far from done unraveling this mystery!
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