The Freiburg Fiasco

As the TIP were en route back from their 3rd commission, they decided to investigate a large plume of black smoke from a village through with they were passing. (More accurately most of the party argued about whether it was any of their business, and Vani and Jean just sort of went there and everyone followed.) The Brobdingnagian faction of the party approached the town's Burgher while the Smallfry faction went to talk to some children. Not surprisingly, the children wound up vastly more useful than the adults (kids hear things, and don't feel as much need to lie as adults) and we learned that some Witch Hunters had razed the Burgher's house and the tavern, and one of them was probably stowed away in a barn. Narcell'Uss did notice that the Burgher had a fresh brand on his inner forearm in the shape of the Witchhunter's sign. Vani and Dorian also noticed thieves' cant in the burned wreckage very emphatically signalling "STAY AWAY". Which was particularly odd, since the other houses had very standard inventories in scratched in to their door frames.

Naturally, since it was not particularly any of their business, they checked it out. There was a fellow in the house whose hands had been badly mangled. Jean patched him up and we chatted with him a while. Turns out the Comonna Tong had broken his hands because he wouldn't pay them. The guy with the broken hands had called in the Witch Hunters to mess up the Burgher, since he was in league with the Tong. Given that the Witch Hunter was still in the barn, to the best of the party's knowledge, they elected to leave well enough alone, and caution the farmer not to tell anyone that the TIP had helped him out. They were never there (wink wink nudge nudge).