Jacob Cutter, Where are you?

[Khalika]

The Gypsy it seemed was suddenly everywhere, leaning into the window of one home talking with this person, then that. It seems most of the locals have a very friendly relationship with this woman, or a very keen notion of who she was, and what she was, beside she has long live with the motto..."You've done something to bring me to your door".

Of course the locals haven't done anything or nothing so greivious someone is willing to play the Gypsies prices to deal with it. So as it was she was visiting, checking up on a few families, who for some reason or another are held close to her. For some a bag of flour accompanies her, or a basket of fruit and vegetables, bushels of woods, for repairs and to run the stove, bolt of fabric. Whatever she though might be need for the moment, and in return?...

Well nothing comes for free, but she is not a tyrannt, so if she is paid with a story, or a hint of information. She was well satisfied, and if that accompanied a touch of lunch and company, all the better. Its no wounder no one has ever turned her in for her less then legal activities..

So today she was woundering about town, asking about a certain individual....She hit the tavern got a pretty good description from the tender who recieved the letter he dropped off, as well as people who saw him marking the Ashfiend poster. So she was quite confident she could now spot him if she saw him....But she had to find him...

So Jacob Cutter?.....Where are you?

[Kait]

As it so happens, Jacob Cutter had indeed made it to Heath, and only just this afternoon.


"Delicious this.." The farmer's mouth was stuffed full of pear, bits of which threatened to spill out as he spoke between bites. "Wherever did you find these? All my crops are going to rot in this heat." She was wise in the way she gleaned information from these folk, and he was feeling pleased enough to offer her up crown secrets, had he any. "Cutter you say? Man by that name stayed a night with us. He seemed in a terrible hurry to be moving on South. I hope he treats poor Maddy well.."

Maddy, as the woman would surely discover with ease, was the family's former plow horse. She had been of no use for pulling the plow for years now, and had been kept on as a pet. The heat and quickly withering crops had made it impossible to turn up Mr. Cutter's offer of silver for the old beast, no matter how sentimental his daughters felt about her.

Were those fresh berries? Of course he still had the coin, stashed away in the bottom of mother's flour sack. She was more than welcome to see..

[Khalika]

Khalika Just sat back and watched, she remembered the old plow horse...And made mental note to get it back home. As for the fruit, there are ways to grow in heat if one is wise, but it is usually easier to have it brought in from healthier regions. Which what she has done for sometime now, in part because this land she believes is cursed in some way, and another. Well she likes a variety of flavors and some are just not offered bythe Myrkentown locals..

"South?....Did he mention why he was in such a hurry?"

As she took a bit of an apple, the flavor and look made her think of Ariane. and that had her smiling...but as the farmer continued she listened, she has been practicing the art..Something many have said she is not good at..

"May i see the coin he used to pay you?..

If she was lucky, it might have been part of the payment he received to set up the meet for this witch....[/I]

She wouldn't rush the farmer, but simply wait till he was finished before looking to leave...Seems the Gypsy was going south.

[Kait]

The farmer would shrug, then offer her speculation. "He seemed wary of Myrken as a whole, not that I could blame him with what's been through here time and again."

The leather purse containing the coin would be pulled from the sack of flour by the famer's well worn hands, then dusted off before he shook the coin out for her inspection. It was of a fair weight and size, and a great deal more actual silver than anyone in their right mind would offer up for an animal that was probably nearing lame in such lean times. One side only of the coin had been stamped, and scratched as that silver may have been, it still bore likeness enough to a stag to be recognized even by the farmer's eyes.

"Never seen its like before, but it's silver true enough. Only sorry I can't help more." Of course he was. Who knew what other delights she might bring with her if he could offer further information. He would offer to do just that, if anything interesting came his way.

[Khalika]

Nodded again as she stood up, spying the silver...She would pick it up and drop a gold coin down in its place...

"For a rainy day...

She offered and then was gone...Its likly he wouldn't be bothered with the trade, and she has always had money to melt...But now she had something more important, a possible link back to this witch. If indeed this money Cutter offered for a near lame ex plow horse. was what she had given him to leave a letter at an inn

Jacob Cutter...Get ready....Khalika Quiller wants to have a talk...

[Khalika]

The Gypsy had rode through the night to make to Heath before the break of dawn, in these earlier hours she can get a good feeling for the town and see if a few old friends may still be around.

By the time breakfast is being served she is moving though a couple of the hot spots, dropping the time name

Jacob Cutter to all the people who were in the know...One of more should point her in his direction.

[Ace]

"I hate Jacob Cutter!" In the midst of a middle-scale pub deep in the heart of Heath, Smiling Tom Cooper was currently NOT smiling. Strangely enough, he wasn't a cooper either. As for the former, no one in the entirety of Heath, even the entirety of the province, knew exactly why the man was called Smiling Tom. He certainly didn't smile often. The latter? That was because his father, and his father's father, and his father's grandfather before that were all coopers. It was Tom who had worked his hands to the bone, who had gone against his family's wishes to follow his own dreams. In a world where one's surname itself was the best form of advertisement, he would have had a hard time of things.

For Tom built houses, barns, fences, and even the occasional manor home. After all this time and all this hard work, his star WAS on the rise. He had a group of men under him, almost as if he was a LORD to them, and didn't THAT little thought make him proud! The Reinstadlers themselves had even hired him to do a project, admittedly a minor one. Unfortunately, that had been last year, and this summer, there was a particular lack of work to go around.

And don't you think that he wasn't hearing about the lack of money coming in from that shrew of a wife too! THIS was why he hated this Jacob Cutter so! Cutter had come out of nowhere, with the sort of start up money someone usually only received from taking over a local Master's business. That was how Smiling Tom got his start, after an adolescence of apprenticeship, not by pushing into someone else's territory. Most of all, while a little competition was well and good, Cutter was cheating!

He had tremendously underbid on the only job that had popped up in the last month, under the excuse of FAMILY, yes, sure. Oh, but Smiling Tom knew the truth! This was the interloper's way of getting his name out there, of "cutting" into business that should have rightfully been Tom's own. So here was good Mr. Cooper, drinking away his sorrows and loudly cursing the name of the man he blamed for them, for anyone to hear. Yes, he knew where Jacob Cutter was. He knew, indeed!

[Khalika]

Khalika Entered that very same inn , while Smiling Tom was in the midst of his rant, though she did not hear the whole of it over the normal ambient noise a tavern does bring. To the bar she goes, she had spoke with the tender on privious occasions and so she was checking in... It was him who pointed her in the direction on Smiling Tom.

A short distanced weaved through tables, ale in hand. The Gypsy was a sight, her height, her build, gait. everyone in the bar read it well, she was dangerous...A cared not to hide that fact..

Dropping a gold coin upon Smiling Tom's table...she would drop herself into a seat...confidence redefined, as she smiles on of those I dare you smiles, and speaks..

"19 more, if You tell me everything you know about Jacob Cutter...First and most important...Where he can be found...

Think quick Smiling Tom, and you should be Smiling now, think quick...For the longer you pounder...The smaller the Dollar...

[Ace]

Smiling Tom was a man of natural pride. He had built himself up from nothing; no, from less than nothing! He had a lucrative business (the fact that it currently was NOT lucrative seemed beside the point). He was a respected pillar of the community (and even if no one else might say that, old Smiling Tom would say it loud enough that it'd certainly count). And he was not about to be bribed, nagging shrew of a wife or no!

Of course, then again, gold coins would go a long way. Let him ponder this for a moment. She was a gypsy, not hardly a respectable woman to be spoken to by a respectable man, and surely she wanted nothing good for Jacob Cutter. But then, neither did he. It just proved his theories, now, didn't it? He must have gotten the money from some notorious crimelord and this was his hired hand, ready to snuff him out. Well, then who was Smiling Tom to get in the way of the natural order!

So Smiling Tom, his pride assuaged by avarice, need, and rightous fury, nodded and spoke to the woman. "Oh, I'll tell you everything." And he did. He told her of the man's arrival, of his family connection, and most especially, of the site of the construction, of just where the man could be found. And as he finished, something very rare happened. As Smiling Tom looked to the gypsy, there was the widest of smiles upon his face.

[Khalika]

The Gypsy listens to the mans story...A nod here and there no questions no confirmations, or need of proof. Just nods.. When he is finished, there is a passing smile, as she stands, tossing the coin purse on the table...She indicates towards the door..

"Shall we?" It was not necesarily a request, the look in her eyes as she peered down at him, was clue to that. It was in his best interest to lead the way.

She didn't want to spend anymore time in the building as she needed to. To many unknown equations, especially since she didn't perhaps exactly believe his story, for alls he knew he was friend of Jacob Cutter, and this was all a ploy, it that is so she will need more room....

[Ace]

"Huh?" She was... serious? Oh, come on now. He had done more than she asked at this point. Good and fair, that's Smiling Tom. "You're saying that the directions I give aren't... Oh, I see." She was another dumb foreigner, that's what she was, much like Cutter himself. Without him to lead her around she was going to find her death in the form of a bog (quite a task given that there were NO bogs in this part of Heath).

Tom spit. Tom coughed. And then, slowly, Tom rose. "It's going to cost you another coin, aye? But," Here he nodded at her, his lips providing no further displeased sounds than a final, though mighty, grunt. "And I won't lead you past the entrance to his blasted cousin's estate! I don't care what sort of business you have with him; I just don't want to be associated with all of it if Cutter ends up in a river, you hear?"

[Khalika]

The Gypsy knew Heath, quite well. In fact she would have had no trouble locating Jacob Cutter on her own. It was not an escort she was after, no not at all. If it wasn't for the fact that she wanted to keep this little meeting a secret, she would have cut the man free, but as it was he was the only one who she didn't know, who knew what she was up to. All previous contact had been made though personal contacts in town.

No she did not know smiling Tom, and she did not know Jacob Cutter, and until she is sure they are not one in the same, or friends instead of so called foes....

Smiling Tom was going to have company....For a while it seemed...

"You'll get what you deserve for the service provided

Short and to the point as the night air replaces Stale tavern musk.

[Ace]

Well, Smiling Tom provided a number of services for the gypsy as they walked. He spit by her feet, while complaining about the heat. He insulted the good name of every outsider to ever walk through these parts, present company and Jacob Cutter included. He even went on to give a long, grinding lecture on labor conditions and how things would work so much better if he and his colleagues would just set up a cartel to block out such interlopers.

It seemed like Ol' Tom was able to overcome almost any problem that life tossed at him through sheer snark alone. It made his company far less than pleasant however. The time seemed to slow to a crawl and he would listen to neither threat nor bribe as a reason to still his tongue. Time passed, and the two of them were soon standing at the entrance to Cutter's cousin's estate. "This is where we part." Tom looked at her with more than a little distaste. "I'd say that it's been pleasant, but Ol' Tom is no liar!"

[Khalika]

The Gypsy listened while he talked, and talked and spit and talked, and complained and talked some more, and while he talked she walked and watched and smirked. As they did this she pulled a small knife from somewhere, cleaning the undergroove of her nails. Until they came to a stop.

She looked at the fenced off land and the starts of a house in the distance. A slow nod to the words of poor Smilin' Tom as he turned to depart.

Smilin' Tom liked to complain, like to talk, unfortunately tonight he did a bit to much of both for the Gypsy's likeing. A swift snap as his back was to her, and poor Ol'smilin'Tom would talk no more...not ever again..

Perhaps if he talked less Ol' Tom would have made it through the night, of course the fact that he talked at all might have spelt his doom. For if he spilled to her for money he could easily spill to another, and that alone made him expendable.

As the man fell limp and lifeless she grab him under the shoulders, dragging him quickly to a tree, taking off the cloak she wore-not hers of course, she wore none of her usual garb.-She would wrap it round him, hood up, proping him against the tree. Any passer-byer would think him a drunkard sleeping it off, or a traveler or one of the homeless just sleeping. In any case it would take closer inspection to discover the truth. at least till morning or he began to smell, in any case by then she would be long gone. Funny though she left the coin,he might need it in her mind, to pay the ferrier to cross the river.

Afterwards she was making her way over the fence, smooth and silent, a snake in the grass she moved towards the house, drawing towards any light or signs of life. She still did not have a description of who Jacob Cutter was. One might think she killed the Cooper man to soon, but as it was not likly he would accompany her to make an ID she will have to improvise....

[Kait]

The construction site was bustling, as it was wont to be between the wee hours of morning until half past noon, and then again in the evening after supper until sometime around the hours of eleven and midnight. The work hours had been divided in this manner by Cutter to spare his odd crew the worst of the afternoon's heat, which was not plaguing Heath half as much as the land-locked Myrken Wood, but still could make an honest day's work quite miserable. This evening was no different than any of the others they had worked before, and would find Cutter yelling orders across the site to skilled and novice workers alike between his own hammer swings. He was the sort of man who would not ask more of his men than he'd be willing to put forth himself, and this had quickly earned him their loyalty.

The site itself was still more frame than manor house at this point, but enough work had been completed to give even the unimaginative passerby the general idea of what the house's finished shape and size would be: large, and somewhat obtrusive in comparison to the nearest homes in this area. Fortunately, the plot of land his distant cousin had purchased was large, and those near neighbors were no less than half a mile's walk in any one direction, which made them unlikely to complain of the manor's eventual size, or the sounds of hammering in the night.