Act 2: Upheaval I - The Werewolf

"Wiara," he says. "She's the one who handled it."

"She's working right now!" he cheerfully explains. "You passed by her when you came from the inn. We would be lost without her, really. Still, if you're thinking of looking for ‘Colby’, you'd have better luck asking the Noze themselves."

"Who else would be wretched enough to attempt a kidnapping? On my word, if anyone can commit such an atrocious act, it's them."

"Right. Thank you. If you don't mind then, i'll be speaking to the madam at the desk."

Mihai goes to speak to Wiara

"Of course!" he says with wide arms.

Amber follows Mihai without saying anything.

"Was there anything else?" the owner asks the two mages.

"Goodbye." Steve smiles at the owner and waves goodbye. He follows Mihai and Amber to the inn's front desk.

"Another night shift? I doubt I can afford it..."

He muses on the idea. Then Steve says goodbye.

"Oh, have a good day!"
____________

Mihai and Amber arrive at the reception desk of the inn. A woman in her forties with a bun hairstyle sits behind the desk; she's talking to a young couple and is giving them a key. Steve, Konrad and Florolf have time to join the rest of their companions before she's finished with her clients.

"Welcome!" she says with a warm smile. "How can I help?"

"Wiara?" - ha asks as if to confirm - "We're investigating the kidnappings that have been going on lately. The owner said we should speak to you."

"Oh." Her smile vanishes. "...You don't look like Defenders."

"More like concerned citizens, kind of. Mind if we ask you a few questions?"

She stares at the adventures for a moment.

"I'd like to confirm this with mister Zaborski first," she says.

"Don't worry, it won't take long," Wiara replies. She then inhales a deep breath and yells, "IWON! DID YOU JUST SEND THESE PEOPLE TO TALK TO ME ABOUT THE INCIDENT FROM THE OTHER DAY!?"

There's a moment of silence, and the owner of the establishment yells back at her from the other building. "YES! I DID! THEY'RE FUNNY!"

The receptionist clears her throat. "How can I help you then?"

Amber, not understanding a word of Wytrwaly, hangs back with her mouth open. Florolf is hiding behind her legs with his ears flat on his head.

"...Owner said the room was rented out to a man named Colby. Anything you can tell us about him?"

Steve laughs and says in Wytrwaly, "Iwan is pretty funny too." He also explains to Amber what they just said.

Konrad relaxed a bit when the woman opted to yell one room over - after the yell. How long he had been away from his home country. Elsewhere, it was more common that someone would have the "decency" to excuse themselves to speak one-on-one to confer with another. We'd better not tell her our names, for now.

"Oh, that's why," Amber says. "I thought we had done something wrong."

The woman puts her hand on her chin. "Hmm, he was around your height. Had short black hair; couldn't have been older than you, that's for sure. There was nothing particular about him, except that he spoke Imperial without an accent. A flimflam like him has probably left Odwaz by now."

"What about the people that actually used the room? Don't they have to swing by the desk to pick up their keys or something?"

"Clients do have to give us back their key before leaving the building," she explains. "But he's the only one who entered the room. He stayed in it for like an hour and came back to give me the key before going into town. I haven't seen him since."

"How long was that before the busted kidnapping happened?"

She checks her register.

"He left at... 8:32 PM," she reveals. "The kidnapping happened during that night. I'd give you the information I got from his papers, but they were probably fake. He was supposedly from the Enclave, but anyone could have forged them for him."