"Derrick", Brother Cadmus replies curtly, noticably leaving off the "Steward" honorific.

Very well then Uncle, Vigilance and I will pay a visit to Steward Derrick's house now, but Uncle please remember it is not for you to judge those around us, especially not someone appointed by the Lord of Life," Constance smiles again to take the sting out of this gentle rebuke, "May the Lord of Life bless you and keep you Uncle, rest now and I will pray for your wounds to be healed ever faster."

Constance turns to Vigilance and says "Come Vigilance, and if we chance upon our wayward brother that we encountered on the way into town it would be good to have a little talk with him." So saying she turns and leaves Cadmus's house and returns to her horse."

Constance turns to Vigilance, seemingly coming out of a daze, as if something was on her mind. "My Uncle? Ahhhh I had forgotten you've not had many dealings with the Moutain People, Vigilance" she says. "White Church, where I grew up, had a Moutain People settlement nearby, and encountering that kind of attitude was fairly common. I'm afraid not all of our Brethren are as tolerant as we are my friend, I expect we shall find many others who share my Uncle's opinion of the Moutain People here. What worries me more is that if my Uncle's opinion of the Steward is widespread throughout this place, the people must be confident in their Steward else they will have noone to look to for guideance, perhaps that is why that man we passed earlier was in such a state. Whether there is truth in my Uncle's accusation of the Steward or not, we need to have a very serious talk with him."

Brother Vigilance and Sister Constance arrive at Steward Derrick's two story home where he greets them warmly and invites them in.

"Welcome, Brother, Sister", the Steward says.  "What can I help you with today?"

Sitting in the corner of the room, wrapped in a in a heavy shawl, and elderly Mountain woman reads from the Book of Life.

Constance walks in, glad of the warm welcome, she glances across at the Steward's Grandmother and her reading material and with a small nod turns to the Steward: "Good day Steward Derrick, Good day Sister," she says with another small nod to the woman in the corner, then turning back to the Steward she says, "and thank you for your warm welcome, may we sit down? My name is Sister Constance and my companion is Brother Vigilance. I'm afraid that there are several matters that we must discuss with you, some of them not at all pleasant. If I may ask about the Meeting House first? We''ve been told that the cause of the fire is quite unknown, I was wondering what your impressions of that night were?"

Vigilance walks in after Constance and gives a silent nod and quick smile towards Derrick. Prefering to not to sit, he stands to the side of Constance, letting her do all the talking. *Cough*excuse*Cough*

 

"I really don't know what I can tell you", the Steward replies.  "Things haven't been great around here, despite my best efforts.  Crops have been coming in slow, we've lost some of the livestock to negligence, and now the fire.  I woke up in the middle of the night to people shouting so I ran out and there it was, the fire, lighting up the town.  We got a bucket brigade going, but all we could really do was keep it from spreading.  Couple men got hurt.  Aren't you Cadmus's niece?  He got burned pretty badly.  Have you called on him yet?  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll heal up fine.  He's a stubborn old cuss."  The Steward smiles warmly, but with a hint of tiredness in his eyes.

From outside, a voice calls, "Steward!  A moment of your time please!  I've very important matters to discuss with you regarding the Territorial Authority census taking!"

The Steward's shoulders slump.  "Oh, no.  If you'll excuse me, that's Brother Artax again.  He's likely here to try to convince me to give him money to support his family."  The Steward sighs and then calls out over Sister Constance's shoulder, "One moment, Brother!  I've got visitors!"  He looks back to Sister Constance and asks, "Is there anything else, dear?"

"I don't know", the Steward replies.  "I've been trying to figure this out myself for some time without success.  Do you really think that liquor is the root of the town's problems?  Please, Sister, Brother, I desperately need your help in this.  I've prayed constantly and I've talked to everybody about the town's poor circumstances, but I can't get any answers.  Do you think you could get to the bottom of things?"

"Don't worry Steward, we will start investigating and put things in right order soon enough." Vigilance snaps out of his little daze and focuses on the Steward. "Is there anyone you can think of who would want to burn down the hall?" he asks, "Or is there somebody here who has a reputation for causing trouble? Any information you can give us would be much obliged."

"No, I can't think of any reason that somebody would burn down the church meeting house.  That's just crazy.  Who would do something like that?" the Steward replies.

"As my confident companion says rest assured Steward we will find the root of this problem... although I don't think that the cause of the problems besetting you is the presence of alcohol here, but rather simply another symptom. That being said investigating the source of this pollutant and the sadly ruined Meeting House might give us some clues as to what is at the heart of the problem, and once we discover it we will deal with it. As to who would burn down the meeting hall... well that's not something I'd like to guess at, it will do us no good to proceed on reputation alone. Well Steward we will take our leave of you now, I'm sure Brother Artax will be getting impatient being made to wait so, but then again patience is a virtue. I think first we shall head to the inn, it has been a long ride and I don't know about you Vigilance but I do need a meal and perhaps sometime to rest. Besides we may be able to learn something by asking the people there. If you can think of anything that could be of help to us, anything at all please don't hesitate to come to us with it. Until later then Steward, Sister." So saying Constances stands and heads to the exit.

The Dogs head for the inn.  The Brother there greets them warmly and sets them up with a free room.  He's unaware of any problems in the town, other than some general bad luck, like the thing with the fire.  Eventually, they turn in for the night.

The Dogs awake to the smell of smoke pouring in under the door!  The room becomes increasingly warm and breathing gets difficult.  Shouting can be heard from outside as people try to combat the blaze.

Constance looks around the room for a split second, trying to ignore the fact that someone is trying to kill them. Spying the washstand she tears two thick strips from the bed sheet, thoroughly soaking them in the bowl of water, and then hands one to Vigilance before tieing her own around her nose and mouth. Turning to him she she motions to the door and says, "Ready Vigilance? We're going to have to do this quickly, unless you want to jump out of the window?"