Festival: Kitty Candy

Dun Loireag has a problem, it'd seem. Passing out candy during the Shadow Festival is important amongst many things. And while it may not be time to dress up right now, there's a serious situation brewing that has had the owner of the Kitty Candy shop ask the Adventurers for their help.

It's actually a bit remarkable, for a shop owner of such a simple shop to have the kind of money to throw around for so many Adventurers in attendance to be paid. Jun Miruno, bearing her basket and usual blue and white getup, welcomes them in front of her shop with a sweet smile. Touching one hand to her cheek as some of the attendees approach.

"You must help me, Adventurers." She explains. "Just a few days ago, some people came to my shop explaining their children got sick off of my candy. But that absolutely cannot be. I looked into it as well as I could. And it seems that someone is maliciously selling a fake version of my Kitty Candy." She shows the little candies in her basket.

"These bad candies..." She offers a hand out of similar looking candies, but with a darker kitty face and different colors. "... Are poisonous. Cat Cat Candies are bad. I need you to find who is distributing them, and make sure it stops."

Vertina leans over to pinch one of the candies between two claw-like fingertips and pick it up. Then the Salamander stands and holds it up to her face and squints at it. "At the very least it's poorly and cheaply made, making it toxic to ingest. Some real asshole is putting money over children's health and safety. Disgusting. Like these." She throws the Cat Cat Candy. "And I'm not going to try one. I'm daring, not stupid. Let's go find this rat."

Schneider is one of the adventurers who has come to help out the Kitty Candy shop. Tall and suave, with his long hair flowing, dressed stylishly, or as he imagines stylishly looks. He sweeps his gaze around the store, but of course any little malevolent creatures would have made themselves scarce before the adventurers arrives. The number of adventurers here certainly makes it look like someone's in for a stomping, but there's always a risk that there's something very serious afoot. Particularly if the confectionery has been compromised.

He looks around, sniffs the air, hrms at the amount of confectionery here. It's almost enough to give him cavities just standing here. He nods as she explains about the candy attributed to this shop, so he wonders, "Do you know of any competitors who might have done such a thing?" But he's a sorcerer, there's magic that can do things, right? Some way to magically determine the source of the candies would be perfect, of course. If she doesn't know.

It isn't common that Kita gets away from the Isle of Beginnings. The Imp usually spends her days in Tolbana or one of the other Tower settlements, working on whatever tasks Scale Emblem has for her. However, she had been seen on the streets of Dun Loireag, at the side of a taller, red-headed Salamander female. Jurou had taken Kita out to experience 'trick or treating', a very western passtime which the red-head knew from her time in the United States.

However, she seems to be minus her Salamander companion when she approaches the shop, her hand idlely swiping through menus. Eventually, she stops fiddling with things and blinks, looking up, pushing her glasses up on her nose. Her brows furrow, "We were just out earlier with some of the local children. I can't imagine someone wanting to hurt them like that." She snaps, a spark of flame forming at her fingertips. "Yeah, I have no problem stopping whomever is doing this." With prejudice, it seems.

    Some dastardly villian was poisoning the candy, what ne'er do well would do something so criminally heinous. Yes adventurer fans, it seems dire times have hit the streets of Dun Loireag, and it is up to the noble Scale Emblem member Setsuna to solve this mystery with his trusted loyal side kick, The Knight, to help him out when he needs. Of course also there were the other adventurers here too.
     As he listens to the sweet and innocent story, Setsuna does his best to understand the motive behind all this. " Any idea who would be behind it? Made anyone mad that would like to see you discredited as a candy maker? Perhaps someone who just hates children? Old man who wants to drive everyone away to take over the farm...no wait that was a different episode. " It was all in all a long list of questions as he tries to get some information before he looks at Vertina, " I agree lets find this rat."

    Merek looks to the party, while he takes a moment to offer a little nod with what's said, "Alright, we will do what we can." The man adjusts the beltcape which he wears while the scarf will shift with him, then he thinks, "Alright, with this many people we can probably investigate."

Someone poisoning candy? That's not sweet at all!

Kotono shakes her head and says, "I don't know who's behind this or why or anything like that, but we're gonna figure out what's going on and bring whoever's responsible to justice!" She twirls her blades a little as if trying to show off a little before holstering them. She then looks to Miyako and says, "Maybe when we're done you can write a song about this whole thing?" She chuckles.

    Miyako smiles lightly to Kotono, nodding. "This sort of thing can't be allowed to continue, especially with something like this. Things that children are going to be eating... poisoned... cannot be allowed."

    She hmms softly as she considers the idea of a song. "Well... it's certainly a possibility, yes," she muses. "We'll see when it's done if there's anything I can use for one, and then, well."

You know, Prophylaxis could /swear/ that he's been right by this particular shop before, and yet he can't think of when or where. And there's no way he'd ever forget a face like Jun Miruno's, but he just can't figure out where he's seen it before. Why is this place so familiar, and why does he feel like he's... overlooking something...?

...

Nah, probably his imagination. Right? Right.

Besides, this is more important than simple deja-vu. Children being poisoned is a critical public health emergency. "I don't suppose you'd mind if I took a couple samples," the doctor asks, opening his hand to receive the a kitty and cat-cat candy. Whatever the toxin may be, it'd behoove him to figure out what it is and whether he has a counteragent on-hand before they go charging into what very well may be some kind of awful monster-run drug lab.

Or something. Anything can go in this kitty candy caper...!

Erufu half expected the shop owner was dealing with nobles, or even lucked out and a lot of Adventurers took a liking to them. She looked to Jun smiling at her. "So I heard you had some trouble and that's the case?" The elf is lost in thought for a moment at this. "Yes counterfeiting like this is pretty serious and it shows whoever is doing it doesn't care about people getting hurt. Well, you asked the right people to help! I will have to ask do you have any rivals who might stand to gain from your credibility being ruined?"

with that in mind she'll set out after she got her answer as she stars to try and tracking down signs of anyone who might be selling candy

One moment she's not there, the next, there she is. At times, Uta forgets about the Spriggans' native affinity for sneaking, and arrives unannounced by even the slightest rustle. Times like this one.

"But it makes no sense," comments Uta. "Can't be just profit. If it was just for profit, they could just sell wrapped rocks. Poisons sound like they're more effort to produce than, you know, some stand-in for actual candy..." She side-eyes to Prophylaxis, "Right, Doctor?"

She slaps her forehed. "Oh, which reminds me!" She turns away from Prophylaxis, points at the rest of the group, opens her mouth to talk...

...freezes there for a second or two...

Then turns away and wanders off looking for... something?

Tenko cannot allow there to be someone who is poisoning children, or any Landers, and continue to be active. The kitsune is looking for any potential signs of counterfeit.

Truthfully she has never seen any of the Kitty Candy before, so she may not be able to immediately detect the difference between the real deal and the counterfeit ones.

That's not going to stop her from looking around and trying to find out what she can, however.

"Do be careful. If they are Landers, I do believe the Guardians may interfere." Jun remarks. "It is best to warn the guards at that point, and leave the rest to them, okay?" She can't help but show a remarkably bright smile at Kita putting her flame on display.

"I don't really have any competitors." She then explains to Schneider in an innocent tone, tilting her head a bit to the side and spreading out her fingers along her cheek. "Who would possibly want to compete with me? They're just candies. I'm just worried about the children."

The then offers Prophylaxis a candy to investigate, but she is not willing to give it up. "I can't give it to you. Just look at it if you must." She answers him. "I don't want to take risks and have this leave my hands."

In the meantime, the team heads on out behind him, breaking up into groups.

Vertina, Schneider, Kita, Setsuna, and Merek end up heading to a deeper part of town, further in the back alleys, where they come across a mother crying, asking for someone to help save their child - and will gladly let people in if they want to try and heal her eight year old son.

Erufu, Kotono, Miyako, Tenko, Uta and later on, Prophylaxis, make it to the central markets where they find a group of people talking amongst themselves about Kitty candy. One of them crushing a piece under their foot. "Damned bastards gave this to our children. Who would do something like this?"

"Of course, I understand completely," The Doctor of Tolbana answers and peers carefully at the mysterious kitty candy. The Pharmacy skill has... aggressively niche applications, sometimes. One of them involves identifying toxins and poisons and other such underhanded nonsense. What he finds seems to cause his eyebrows to creep slowly toward his hairline. "...Well, that's certainly ominous. Whatever process was used to mix this poison in, it was amateurish at best. But that's the only saving grace. If the poisoner was better at their craft, those kids would be dead, not just sick." He offers the poisoned candy back to Jun with a shake of his head, "...Regardless, I should be able to neutralize it. We need to figure out where this is coming from before they figure out how to refine their technique, though."

There's a beat as Uta does Utaful things and Prophylaxis... arches his brow at her? "Uh, what were you going to ask...?"

Well. Probably not important, right? Right.

And so he ends up at the marketplace, where he examines the crushed Cat-Cat candy in the same way he examined the piece Jun had on hand. "I don't suppose you know where they got them from?" The Doctor asks, before glancing up at the Lander. "Sorry. Doctor Prophylaxis, at your service. My fellows and I are investigating the source of this tainted candy to put a stop to it. Any assistance you might be able to offer would be very welcome."

Vertina ignites her fists with flames to help provide some light, but doesn't really find much on her own so she just follows some of the others. In the end they come across the crying woman pleading for help regardless of the means. She snuffs out the flames and then puts one the woman's shoulder to try and calm her down. Just because she's a tomboy jock doesn't mean she can't be empathic. "Please. We're here to help. Where is your child?"

    Setsuna looks at the others and well they are heros , surely they can do something. Approaching the mother he does his best to calm her down, " It's ok , it's ok, we are here to help. Just tell us what happened to your kid and let us look at him and we will see what we can do. " Looking at those who had come with him he is nervous but what is a necromancer if not just a doctor who is fashionably late.

As they head out in search of the nefarious people behind the poisonings, Kita keeps her little bit of flame lit, offering them some measure of light as they move into back alleyways and away from the brighter lights of the streets. At one point, she can be heard talking into her Chimlink, though. "Yeah, did we get any green candy that looks like a cat while we were out?" She asks to someone not in the group. "Yeah, don't eat it, okay? I'll explain later."

Then, her attention seems to return to the task at hand. Luckily, it's a short while later that they stumble on the mother and child. She offers no reassurances, knowing that healing isn't something that she is capable of, but she follows the others, paging through her sketchbook to a blank page. "Did you go with your child to collect candy? If so, do you remember where they might have gotten one that had a cat on it?" Asking questions and taking notes... well, there is a reason she act as scribe for Scale Emblem.

Miyako and Kotono will wind up in a marketplace where apparently other people have found out about this, and they are not happy either. "Looks like we're definitely on the right trail," Kotono says to both Miyako and herself as they look around and listen in. When there's a break in the conversation Kotono inquires, "Who did your children get this from? Any information you can give us will be helpful."

Schneider winds up with the group that finds the ill child, and he frowns. "I'm all fine with fighting and dying in battle, but poisoning a child is low." And he seems to have decided to do something about it, placing his hand on the child's forehead and looking solemn for a moment. Which is kind of uncharacteristic, but he doesn't like people messing with kids. And poisoning's kinda stinky. So he chants softly, while the glow intensifies, remaining steady at a very bright level for a moment before fading. He looks a bit haggard as he resumes his feet, but says, "Your child should be OK with some rest."

Tenko considers a little bit, as she rubs the underside of her muzzle for a moment, "I wonder.." She muses, "Poisoning a child is low, but could it be another Lander with an axe to grind against the candy company? Or an maybe even an Adventurer.."

    Miyako nods. "Do any of the children need medical help right now? We can get the Doctor here," she gestures at Prophylaxis, "To help them." She tries to keep up a positive attitude despite what they're dealing with. Once she's clarified the need for medical aid, she'll ask: "Do you have any of the tainted candy left that we could examine?"

Erufu gets her answers from Jun and will head out to search she does have some much luck as she find some interesting talk going on. She will look over to The Doctor dfor a moment nodding and she lets him speak to the landers.

"We're looking into this matter, someone doing this to kids makes me pretty upset myself. If you have any information at all it would be helpful. We want to end this as soon as we can. Before anyone else gets hurt."

"So they explicitly /mixed in/ poison, Doctor? It's not just accidentally toxic material?" Uta doesn't say anything explicitly. How bad people feel about poisoning children has been driven home enough by the others. But now that any doubt has been cleared, her clenched fists spasm, and she has to take some time to steady her breathing.

That seems to work up to a point, so she flicks her menu open, and materializes a squishy red ball into her hand. She then proceeds to squeeze it in such a way that... well, let's just say that if we were to interpret the kind of squeezing the ball is undergoing as a subconscious example of what Uta might do to whoever did this if she managed to lay her hands on them... yikes.

Once she has managed to calm down well enough, she tries, as well, to discuss with the Landers, and try to learn as much as she can about the incident.

    Mizuki's hairstyle is still changed -- dyed red and brushed to be less wild -- but somehow, pretending to be a cartoon character seems in somewhat poor taste when talking to Jun Miruno about sick children, so she sticks to her street clothes for now. Like Uta, she's mad but has nothing in particular more to say. These monsters have sullied the good spirit of HALLOWEEN, potentially turning it into a bad memory for these children and their families! That cannot stand! While the others go to tend to the sick child and talk to parents, Mizuki bounds off, following her nose to try and find a concentration of something that smells like poisoned candy...

"That's terrible." Jun answers Prophylaxis, touching her hand to her mouth, legitimately looking shocked. "Please, protect the children." She then suggests, as the others leave. Moving back into her small storefront in order to watch the street.

"In here." The woman remarks, bringing Vertina and the rest of the team into her home. It's rather crowded. The house itself is not particularly big, but the woman seems well off based on the kind of equipment everywhere. There's no signs of a father in this particular household though. Just enough room for the mother and her child, who's on the bed. Coughing, and at Low Health based on the inspect reading. They're running a fever.

"He ate some candy and then he got sick." The mother explains to Setsuna, trying to make room. "You... are a doctor, right?"

Kita proceeds to ask a pertinent question. "No, we let our kids go door by door on their own. This has never happened before." She explains to Kita. "Who could have done this?"

Behind her, Schneider's healing light begins to overcome the child, slowly wearing away at the poison. It takes a bit though.

On the marketplace, Prophylaxis makes an attempt at striking up a conversation. He can tell the people are in a rotten mood. He's had to deal with this kind of distress before. Who knows the kind of people that have come through the hospital he worked at. The kind of things people have done. And, thanks to the way the Japanese system works, how many things were kept quiet.

"Our children got it from the houses they went by." One of them remarks, in that 'how could you not know this' kind of way. The man who crushed the candy under foot grumps, "Don't help them, they're just adventurers. They're getting paid to look into this, it's not like they actually care about us." Clearly jaded on the matter.

"Oh stop of Grum." Was that a silent p at the end? "We don't know. I think my kids went north from our house when they left so... maybe near the gate?" She asks. The man grunts, "Mine went to the east gate. So I bet it was just people who bought stuff at that woman's store." He answers Kotono. He may be upset, but he still wants answers.

"Like that woman has any competitors." He grunts to Tenko. "She runs that entire secret. Don't let that smile fool you. I know what family she is from." - "But she never sold bad candy like this. She's always been good to us." One of the women counters.

At Miyako's request, the man answers; "Our doctors handled the situation before it got too bad. Luckily we caught it in time." He then lifts his foot and looks at the shattered remains of the offbrand Cat Cat Candy. It rises in light, having lost its integrity. "No."

Mizuki manages to get a sniff in time though, and begins to wander through the town, trying to chase it. The others sending them in the same rough direction; "Best to talk to some of our children for more answers." Pointing them to their homes, and following the Adventurers there.

It isn't long before they get to some of the richer neighbourhoods, and the children come out, looking confused - but largely healthy. Some of them complaining about how they were just playing with their friends.

Schneider finishes getting to his feet. He's not a great healer, it's ... just something he happens to be able to do. A little. And the kid's better off than he was before. But he looks around now, and wonders the same thing Kita asked. "Can you tell us what houses they went to?" Though they'd have to check each one to see if they had the bad candies, wouldn't they?

Vertina adds her own Light Ki to Schneider's effort in helping heal the child. "We don't know yet, ma'am. But we're working on finding out," she replies to the mother. "This abuse of peoples' trust and childrens' innocence won't go unpunished."

The mother doesn't seem to have any information that is helpful, so that leaves Kita to look back at the attempts at healing the child. Her book gets clutched to her chest, perhaps leaving her feeling just a little helpless in this situation. "At least we were able to help the child." She sighs softly, "But it looks like we'll need to look for other leads."

After a moment, she looks over and approaches the child's bedside, trying to see if they are conscious and able to respond. "Do you remember which direction you went? Or what house you got the candy from?" She offers in a soft voice, putting on a gentle tone that is a little unlike her normal voice.

    Merek makes a way along to the homes, while he nods a bit, "Do any of you know anything with that little candy which made you all sick?" he asks, taking a look to the party and nodding a bit. He seems to be alright with negotiating.

Tenko considers the man's words, "What family is she from?" The kitsune replies, as she considers a little bit, "If it was legitimate Kitty Candy that was somehow intercepted.." She hmms again, "Do you buy the candy directly from her?" She wonders, "Or is there a shop that you purchase it from? And do you happen to have any of the candy that was tainted still?"

    Setsuna looks at the mother and shakes his head, " No I'm not, I am just a parent would sees another parent in distress and trying to help in the best way we can. I have friends here who can heal him. " Looking over as Vertina and Schneider seem to do what needs to be done. Letting out a breath as he watches the health status improve. "As for other ways you can help, we just need to know whatever you can tell us. Which houses did he go to , did he mention any weirdness or someone giving candy out on the street? Whatever you can tell us will help all the children. Also do you have any of the candy left?" They were questions and words but they were something. "OH what about a friend near by did any of his friends go with him?!" There is the sound of urgency in his voice before he looks over at one of the others who are not healing the kid, like Kita or Merek. " Can one of you head out side, see if there are any other distraught parents?"

    Mizuki's not sure what she was expecting. A shady poisons lab or something? Instead, her nose leads her to a rich neighborhood. Is it because this is where most of the kids *brought* the poison candy...? Or is it that here is where they *found* it?

    ...Are none of the kids *here* sick? Hmm. Was it targeting the poorer children...?

    But she's going to have to *talk* to people. Would it be better to *not* be a were fang...? But then she can't do the cat thing. The cat thing is all she has for charming Landers! If it doesn't work... well, then they probably weren't going to talk to her anyway! May as well go all-in. She equips the maid dress. It wouldn't be weird for MIZUKI to wear, after all!

    She smiles and waves while approaching. "Hello, children! Nyaa, Mizuki is here to stop the bad people who made your friends sick! Do anya of you by chance remember which house was giving out that imitation kitty candy, 'cat cat candy'?" She looks around at them, trying to watch for a reaction while feigning innocent curiousity. "It sure is lucky that nyone of you got sick! Does that mean none of you saw anya Cat Cat Candy during the festival, and Mizuki should be asking someone else?"

"Woman's store," Kotono replies to herself as she makes a mental note of it. "I'll go look for it." She sighs. "This is getting more crazy by the minute." The Spriggan sets out to try to locate the market in question, although she doesn't have much to go on. Hopefully, she won't get too lost. Because something about this is really setting off some red flags with her.

The only person who could say for sure what kinds of people walked through Prophylaxis' office is the doctor himself-- and he's not telling. Patient-Doctor confidentiality is one of those things that you just don't /break./ But he has definitely seen this sort of fear and anger before. "Attacking children of all things-- is absolutely unforgivable," Prophylaxis insists, "Many of us are parents as well, you know. It's only a matter of course that we'd do everything in our power to bring these saboteurs to justice, with or without pay."

But sadly, it seems that it's easier said than done. With such a wide distribution network, they'd need to interview the owners of each house individually, but... Maybe the kids could help them figure out /which/ houses they should look towards?

...Mizuki does a thing.

Prophylaxis just sort of shakes his head and... lowers himself to a more kid-like height, "I don't suppose any of you remember which of the houses gave out that weird green cat candy, do you? We're all trying to find the people who hurt some of your friends, and we need your help to catch the bad guys."

Erufu looks to the townsfolk and nods for a moment "Thank you for the information." She looks to Grum for a moment. "The only reason I became aware something was amiss was due to the job posting and no I'm not in it for the money either." She does not raise her voice or sound mad at all. "The east gate, I'll see what we can do." She's also thinking of using her pay to foot the bills of any patients who need it. Well till it runs out either way she will bow to the people then turn and head to the east gate to start seeking out sources of this bad candy.

She'll check for anyone getting candy or giving it out while keeping an eye out for the off-brand stuff being handed out.

This is the kind of investigation which requires an organized approach based on sound reasoning and careful consideration of all the elements at one's disposal.

Uta is having none of that. Instead, she taps her chin, swipes through her menu, taps a specific option, and shimmers.

When the light subsides, she's decked in a very knightly armor, lots of it, with a long red plume on her helmet and a lance, a loooong lance.

It's the kind of armor that looks exotic even by the standards of Yamato; expert armor forgers will easily be able to tell it's actually just a costume -- but a really high quality costume: movie set quality. The kind of thing one would expect from a very fine tailor.

Possibly Gwen at work?

She glances down at herself, probably more for ensuring she's not put on the wrong thing, and she begins to go from door to door, pretty much... trick or treating on her own. "Oh, man. I really hope I get some poisoned candy, tonight!"

The child's coughing begins to lessen when Vertina adds her ki into the mix, slowly furthering the healing process. Enough that the young one starts being able to sit up a bit. Their mother touching her face, gasping, then running to their child. "My baby." She coos and hugs her child, who quickly coughs again. "Momm..." He grunts. "Sorry, sorry." She backs up.

"I really don't know." She then answers Setsuna. "Kids do their own thing, you know?"

Luckily, others are asking the child directly. "Yeah... I think so. I went to the northern gate, then looped around to the eastern one." He looks at the people around him. "I think I got that from this strange lady in frilly clothes." The young man then points out. "Near that old alchemist's shop."

Setsuna then gets another answer from the mom. "I think my boy played with the kids across the street. Do you think they are sick too?" If someone were to go out and check, there are at least three or four seperate parents stepping outside of their house, crying for help in practically the exact same manner - barely seeming to be aware of one-another.

Luckily for Mizuki, this is the Ninetails Dominion. Were Fangs are... kind of common place here. One of the children is even a Were Fang themselves. They're wearing a leather outfit, have a set of goggles on, and is even holding a shovel to their shoulder like a sword. No doubt a future Hunters Guild member! Or some kind of monster hunter.

One of the humans notes, "Yeah, it was that jerk white haired lady at the old alchemist's shop. She was so rude. Insisted we take her candy. Some of us just threw it over the edge. But Ico over there had some." The feline Were Fang lets out a weary mowl. "It made my tummy hurt and my body warm~nya." They answer.

The grumpy dad however is quickly losing his patience with the Adventurers that are crowding their children. He grabs at the human kid and raises it onto his shoulder. "That's enough. "

    Miyako watches Prophylaxis confuse the children and shakes her head, sighing softly, and moves in to take over. "Hey kids," she says, squatting down to match their height. "Who wants to be a big hero, huh?"

    She holds up a handful of coin and adds, "If you can tell us where the shop is, you can split this among you."

At the very least, the child is able to give them a bit more information. Kita quickly opens her book and jots down the information, the description of the woman, the alchemy shop and the path from the North to the East. "Thank you. This will help us make sure no other kids get sick." She tries to offer a smile, but it comes out hesitant and uncertain.

Then, she looks to the others. "We should get going." Sure enough, it sounds like there are more parents with sick children. "I can't help with healing, I don't have that kind of magic, but we should be able to track down who did this. Maybe inform some of the authorities to send help while we're on the way." She suggests.

"Unless we want to split up and those with healing magic can remain behind?" Kita is not the leadership sort in these types of situations, so she seems to be looking for someone else to make those sort of decisions.

Oh no, Prophylaxis' doctor aura is TOO STRONG. He's too suspicious to little children, and radiates far too many DOCTOR PARTICLES to be entirely trustworthy. Even approaching might inspire memories of vaccination and careless chirurgeons. Prophylaxis looks just a little put out-- he likes kids! Honestly! This kind of treatment is just awful.

But then...

Someone mentions an Alchemy shop. And a white haired lady. And Prophylaxis' eyes flutter as a progress bar that only appears in his HUD reaches completion. The doctor's heart catches in his chest, and he goes about as white as a sheet. "...Did she have bright red eyes?" He asks, sincerely, but turns to leave right as he gets an answer. "We need to get to that alchemy shop. Behemoth's horn. One of the poison ingredients is /behemoth's horn/ and the only one that's been hunted recently was killed by a black-conning vampire queen with /white hair...!/"

Schneider considers quietly, but he is, for the moment, not in his element. No monsters and nothing to blow up seriously reduces his options. He will step back and attempt to look cool while the smart people work out what we're supposed to be doing. But it looks like some other other kids are sick, too, so while the party figures out our next move, he'll wander around and doling out heals to the kids.

    Setsuna nods his head at hearing the mention of an alchemist shop, "Got it thank you, you work on feeling better now." As he looks at the others he smiles, "Ok the kid is well and we have a location, " Stepping out he sees the others, " I was afraid of ... MEREK! Merek I need you to do that thing you can do. The mass heal, can it hit all the kids in the houses?" The kids were in danger but the source as well. As he waits for Merek to answer he reaches oout to the others through the chimlinks, "Prophylaxis and the ohers, we have a lead to an old alchemist shop but we have a few other sick kids here. Sounds like the shop is near the eastern gate. Any idea how long these kids have?" Looking back at the others and unsure whether to start trying to manage the ill or get to the source. Fortunately Kita makes sense, " Yes you are right. To those of you who can heal it is your choice if you want to tery to keep helping "

Finally, some actual clues for people!

Which is quickly overshadowed by the realization that there is still plenty of sick children to deal with as well. Vertina sighs a little bit, but it's clear where she's going to be needed it seems. "This is going to be a long night." But duty calls, and not every problem can be solved with punching things. Even she knows that. "You non-healing people can go investigate." She's not exactly a leader either, but there's kids in trouble, and no body likes that. She darts outside to find one of the other children that are in need of relief.

    Oh right, Mizuki picked the Ninetails Dominion as her home area because it's progressive! There's even a were fang kid who also nyas. Mizuki manages not to melt into a puddle from cuteness feedback. But she can't help smiling wide, until the grumpy dad tries to stop the inquiry. "It does sound like we have a suspect, nya! Do you by chance know the person they're describing?"

    But it seems Prophy does! "Seriously? Geeze... but why would someone that scary just make children sick instead of killing them? Do you know where it is??"

    She blinks. "Wait, she cons black?! What exactly do you think we're gonna do against her then?!" She follows, though!

Kita seems to have some success. With answers gotten, Schneider starts moving around to some of the ladies asking for help about their children. It's a tedious and long process, but he begins to heal those children one by one. No doubt getting rewarded by small bits of coin for each one he heals. Vertina spreading out with him makes quite the difference however - healing a lot faster alongside him.

Back with the other team; "Yeah, her eyes were really creepy. I thought she was some kind of weird Cait Sith." Which is odd. Landers usually recognize Monsters when they see one... don't they?

----

When the main group arrives near the East Gate at the Alchemist's shop, they will quickly notice the same thing Erefu noticed when stepping into the area. Enormous gashes in the ground, like swords somehow 'cut' through the ground in those areas. There's roofs which have gashes in them and tiling missing.

The shop front itself seems to be fine however. And the lights are on in there as well.

When they step in through the door, they'll notice the strange 'ratfoot' like prints in the dust of the shop itself. No human footsteps. They seem to lead towards the back of the shop itself. And there's some skittering going on back there, as well as the sounds of glass clinking and sounding.

There's a big red painted mark on the wall however, which claims: FAILURE.

----

In the meantime, somewhere else, Uta manages to trick-or-treat at Jun Miruno's shop, and is given a nice little baggy of Kitty Candy. A baggie just for her. And a kiss on her helmet for having such a wonderful costume.

    as they arrive at the shop, Mizuki stops in her tracks and stumbles when she realizes what she's still wearing. "Ghk!" Ninja outfit equipped!

    "A vampire, you said? Looks like they moved animals through here a lot--" Her ears perk up, and she whispers, "Something's back there..." She tries to sneak ahead and get a look...

    As Setsuna approaches the alchemist shop he slows from a run to a more cautious approach, even stopping to look at one of the damage sections of ground for a moment. " This is not the best sign." Approaching the shop he looks at the other, " Should we flank around back or just go on through? I don't hear any signs of combat? " Taking a moment he looks at the others and then says over chimlinks, " This thing, if it is the one the good doctor mentioned, is the same one that was able to put people in red health by missing with there attack. Only keep going if you understand the risk." With that said Setsuna steps in quietly into the alchemist shop and begins to follow the tracks to the back as carefully as he can.

    Mizuki considers just unleashing fireball, but... hmm. Maybe better to tell the others. She sneaks back to the others, whispering: "It's ratkin. They're mixing up more of the candy."

Schneider is much slower to heal than Vertina. He's an exploder wizard, any healing he can manage is difficult and slow to happen, but between them they get everyone take care of, and he meets back up at the alchemist shop, peering around to see what we learned. "We got a lead?" he asks Setsuna, who he spots running over, and will follow him to where he's going.

With the directions from the child, Kita follows the path towards the Alchemy shop, eventually encountering the other members of the group who had split off earlier. "Well, I suppose we would both find the same intel, eventually."

Her eyes sweep their surroundings, taking in the chaos that appears to have been wrought here. "How did no one notice this and report it?" Her voice is quiet as she looks about, not really skilled in this sort of investigation.

She seems to listen to Setsuna, a moment of hesitance showing before she nods, moving forward. Kita can't help in most aspects of this kind of investigation, but she can offer this much. "That was drawn in blood." Her voice soft, "The strokes express anger." As if that much wasn't obvious on their own.

"An alchemist's shop?" Kotono says as she cocks an eyebrow. "OK, seriously something is not right here. Who buys candy from a place like this?" The Spriggan narrows her eyes and looks around for anything suspicious. "It seems no matter how much I try, I get more questions than answers..." Unwilling to give up easily, she searches deeper for clues.

It takes them a bit longer because they're helping kids along the way, but Vertina's ki energies are at least useful for some healing relief. Eventually it still finds Schneider and her at the alchemy shop that everyone had gotten hinted at. "This part of the city has seen better days." She can only shrug to Kita. "Same as problems go unnoticed in less popular neighborhoods of big urban cities, I guess. Or ghettos wouldn't be a thing." She'll leave the investigating part to more suited people this time.

    Miyako nods to Kotono. "Yeah, I'd be wary of any candy I got from a place like this, too. Kind of thing you'd -expect- to be potioned up in some way, ya know?" She follows her friend into the shop and starts padding quietly towards the back of the shop, looking for the source of the noise.

So that's a confirmation, then. Shalltear Bloodfallen-- what were you planning? One thing's for certain, it didn't go as she had hoped. 'Failure' is painted into the wall. Between that and the damage carved into the area, it's clear that Shalltear was not pleased with this development. The alchemist... She must have hired-- perhaps intimidated-- them into producing the candy. And that means that she's probably not here anymore, that the one in the back of the store is...

"...Careful," Prophylaxis cautions, taking a position near the front of the store. "A cornered rat may kill a cat. I don't know why he's still here-- why he's not just /dead/-- but Shalltear is obviously not happy with the outcome of this little venture. But that means he might be mixing a more potent batch even as we speak...!"

    Merek will nod a little bit while he takes a look at the information, and listens to the information.

With Mizuki leading ahead, sneaking around....

She spots ratkin, making poison candy! They are clearly the source of the poison. And eradicating them would be easy. They're fairly low level, and the way they chitter at eachother seems to indicate they don't know how to speak the common tongue at all. No signs of the former alchemist. But based on the state of this shop, the previous owner has been /long/ gone. It is doubtful these rats or Shalltear had anything to do with that.

Still, this is no ghetto. There's well off places all around it. This is just one of those shops that just happens not to have had a new taker yet.

Luckily, there are no Vampire Women present in order to deal with the invading Adventurers. In fact, there's no sign of her at all. No sense of looming danger. No spears suddenly going through peoples' backs. It's like she left on for greener pastures.

Kotono looking for clues just finds more marks. It's clear there was a Struggle here. Multiple assailants it would appear, based on the scratches, against someone using a larger weapon. It seems that all the assailants were at least somewhat capable of jumping or some form of flight, based on how the marks skip around. She can follow them all the way out of the east gate, where the scratches stop.

    Setsuna watches the ratkin before he leaves the shop as he moves outside he adds, "Its just a rat nest. I recommend we light the thing on fire from the outside and torch it and the inhabitants. " Looking back at the shop making sure nothing else is leaving. He waits to hear what the others decide for now.

Uta gets a bag of Kitty Candy! That's it, the shop that gives out- wait.

Uta attempts a medical examination of the candy. And she blinks at it. "Uh. It's... it's the good stuff. Dang, I thought I got- wait."

She squiiiiiiints at Jun. "Haven't I seen you before?"

A double take, as realization hits.

"Say, uh... haven't you ever, like, gone into a deep trance and obsessed about making candy?" As if not content with the question, she begins to vocalizes a haunting melody. No words, just a single vowel sound describing the melody. She doesn't sing the whole song, just enough to give a good idea of it, then continues, "Or heard this song before?"

"Not without getting samples of that toxin," Prophylaxis says gravely. "I need something to study to develop an antidote. If that Behemoth Horn is still out there, then it stands to reason that Shalltear intends to use it for something else. If that's the case, then we need to develop and distribute countermeasures."

Of course the Scale Emblem would want to just burn the building and it's horrible toxins down. It's kind of their thing. Though there could still be clues inside. "What the Doc said." Vertina is all too happy though to storm inside, and start punching and kicking ratkin around to clear a way for Proph to get his samples.

Schneider has no idea what Proph is talking about, he's always been bad about listening to the Lore. Keeping track of our actual task takes all his mental energy. So he's generally slow on the uptake except when things are excruciatingly obvious. But he can be careful, and he'll join Vertina in moving inside carefully, fireball ready to go. Is it a good idea in close quarters? Probably not. He does so, anyhow.

    Mizuki looks at Setsuna but nods at Prophy's assessment. "I figured you'd say something like that. Maybe we can stealth kill the ones working on the mix, then catch the rest in a pincer attack? Or do you think we can get useful info out of them?"

    "I want prisoners to question," Miyako snaps, and produces her naginata, ready to wade into the ratkin with the haft and the flat of the blade. To Mizuki, she answers, "We'll never find out if we don't try."

Erufu peers at the Gashes this is worrisome to her she's inspecting them. She will then make her way into the shop and is growing more and more concerned. She will hear the sounds in the back and will get ready to move into the back she doesn't pull a weapon as she knows the guards would make her an elf-shaped pancake if she did. SO she's going to have to risk whatever it is.

The elf would get in on attacking the ratkin in short order with her knife, who knew she knew how to use a blade like that. When it's over she just has this look on her face of deep concern.

"This isn't over..."

Looking to Miyako, Kotono draws her blades and says, "Let me back you up. No one's gonna get away with poisoning children on my watch!" Sure it's just a game, but Kotono really gets into her role it seems. Or something like that anyway.

Tenko is not going to allow the Ratkin to survive, even if they are not the ones directly responsible. She will assist the other Adventurers in dealing with the group, though the little threat they pose will prove moot.

In the end she seems unhappy that they did not track down the true source of the poison or the person behind it. But at least, for the moment, this town is a little bit safer. How long it will stay that way, though, remains to be seen.

    "Well it looks like we have a lot of poison supplies," Merek will note, while he nods a bit, then he makes a way along and about while checking the place.