"That's So Raven!" is the third episode of High Rollers.
- Previous episode: "Treachery Revealed!"
- Next Episode: "The Cam Came Back!"
While Jiǔtóu and Elora are examining the bodies of the attacked villagers, Trellimar is approached by Calvin, the marshall, who informs him that he'll be taking Vixanis back to her cell. As she's being led away, she shoots Trellimar a look to remind him of the group's promise to prove her innocence.
After finishing up with the bodies, Jiǔtóu decides she wants to speak with Dahnna, the local blacksmith whom she'd previously seen trying to calm the angry mob. Elora and Trellimar trail behind her, but Cam appears to have vanished while Trellimar was having his telepathic conversation with Vixanis. The trio find Dahnna in her workplace and ask her several questions regarding the murders, but she cannot give them much new information and is mostly worried about how the town is being affected.
Elora expresses her beliefs that sorcery is involved, which surprises Dahnna, as there aren't any magic users in Tallfield. She suggests they speak to Finny, the local tavern owner, since he's well-travelled and would likely know more; he also has an alchemist friend, from whom the group might acquire potions if needed. Trellimar asks about the dwarf Vixanis was looking for, but Dahnna doesn't remember seeing anyone like that. Similarly, she can't really help with Jiǔtóu's inquiry regarding tieflings either; the last time the blacksmith saw a tiefling was months ago, and he was headed to Briarcrest.
Having tired of the conversation, Jiǔtóu walks off, leaving Trellimar and Elora to head to the tavern and speak with Finny. He doesn't really know enough about magic to help them, but he offers them supplies and his room to stay in, since he believes they're the best chance the town has got of solving the murders. Elora asks him about his friend Cune and Finny agrees to go fetch him for them.
Meanwhile, Jiǔtóu arrives at the marshall's office to find out more about the sites of the murders, wishing to investigate the most recent one. Calvin pulls out a rough map and indicates the locations where the bodies were found. He informs her that some of the outlying farm families safely made it to the village, but others remain unheard of; the marshall has tried to send men to check in on those families, but strangely aggressive wildlife drove them back. Calvin also tells her of an abandoned farmstead, which the townspeople suspect is haunted. Jiǔtóu asks him to inform her travelling companions where she's gone if he sees them, and then heads out towards the most recent crime scene.
Back at the inn, Finny introduces a nervous Cune to Trellimar and Elora. Since the alchemist cannot hear, Finny acts as his go-between, using sign language to communicate. Elora asks if he has any healing potions on hand, to which Cune responds by taking out three vials. Trellimar produces the elven urns he discreetly picked up in the elven burial temple, which Cune takes a great interest in - they agree to trade the urns for two potions. Cune also hands Elora a small pouch of natural herbs. Trellimar asks a couple of questions regarding the priest of Pelor that was run out of Tallfield and the dwarf Vixanis was trying to find, both of whom went to Briarcrest according to Finny.
A little while later, Elora decides they should go find Jiǔtóu, but Trellimar ignores her and has a brief telepathic conversation with Cune. The elf reveals that he's seen people plotting to kill Vixanis and worries that they might come after him next, as he and Finny are the only non-humans in town. Trellimar and Cune finish their conversation just as Elora starts getting more insistent in her attempts to get Trellimar's attention. After briefly pondering Cam's continued absence, the pair head out to find Jiǔtóu, but just as they leave, Elora catches a snippet of conversation; apparently, children have been going missing across the country. She tries to locate the person she overheard, to no avail.
Meanwhile, Jiǔtóu, having walked roughly two hours, reaches the wheat field where the latest murder was committed and finds a lot of dried blood, suggesting a scuffle had occurred. She looks around and examines the area, but can't seem to find anything else. Before leaving, Jiǔtóu meditates to extend her senses, but all she is able to conclude is that something unnatural disturbed the area at some point. She then journeys towards the Kingswoods' farm, one of the residences the marshall's men were prevented from reaching. She arrives there after another hour of walking, but besides a few ravens perched on nearby trees, there are no signs of life.
Since the front door is ajar, Jiǔtóu decides to go inside the house and finds some of the furniture in disarray, as well as spoilt food on the dinner table, suggesting the occupants left in a hurry. Aside from faint drag marks and some food, which she takes, the tiefling doesn't find anything else of value and goes to investigate the barn. However, as she steps outside, she notices that there are now dozens of ravens in the area, all silently perched and watching her.
Suddenly, the swarm of ravens swoops towards Jiǔtóu, forcing her to take evasive action. She dives back into the farmhouse and kicks the door shut, but realises some of the windows down- and upstairs aren't closed. With the ravens closely behind her, Jiǔtóu bolts upstairs and barricades herself inside one of the bedrooms. Around the same time, Trellimar and Elora arrive at the house; the latter casts Talk With Animals on herself in an attempt to communicate with the ravens and calm them down. Through their caws and laughter, she hears them mention how "the one with bones" makes them kill more and more people. Elora then tries to intimidate them, but fails, causing the flock outside to attack her instead. Trellimar casts an illusion of a big cat to try and distract the ravens swarming around his teammate, but the flock sees through it, forcing him to simply pull Elora out, for which he suffers some damage himself, and drag her towards the barn.
Jiǔtóu, hearing Elora's cries of distress, lights a torch and uses it to set fire to the trunk with which she had blocked the door, before jumping out the windows. She nails the landing, but her acrobatic maneouvre is upstaged by Elora, who transforms into a large dire wolf and attacks the ravens. Though she takes out several of the birds, the flock as a whole remains quite dangerous. Trellimar fares better, his Eldritch Blast vaporizing about half of the swarm. He then continues towards the barn, which is shut, and sees blood coming from beneath the barn doors. Jiǔtóu and Elora manage to whittle down the rest to a few birds, but the flock of ravens that had been inside the farmhouse emerges and goes for Trellimar.
Severely wounded, Trellimar collapses; in response, Jiǔtóu disengages from her current opponents and runs over to the swarm surrounding the drow's body. She takes out many of the birds, managing to conjure a gust of wind with her guandao that sends half of the flock flying. Both swarms are eventually taken out, following which Elora reverts back to her normal form and uses magic to heal Trellimar's wounds.
After an ineffectual attempt from Jiǔtóu to kick open the barn doors, Elora opens them as intended, revealing the mutilated bodies of the Kingswoods inside. Several of their organs, bones and other body parts have been taken, leading Jiǔtóu to theorize that the culprit might be trying to artificially construct a creature using the scavenged materials. She continues, speculating that there could be connection to the story she'd heard from the marshall, about a boy that experimented on his family before killing himself.
The group take a short rest and then head towards the abandoned farmstead, the supposed home of the boy from the story. As with the Kingswoods' farm, it's unnervingly quiet; Jiǔtóu and Elora opt to try and enter via the back entrance, while Trellimar chooses to go for the front door. He forces his way inside, but finds little of interest in the abandoned room, though he does sense the remnants of arcane magic. Meanwhile, Jiǔtóu and Elora easily enter from the back, but spot a faint glowing light near the staircase; the latter determines that it is spiritual in nature, rather than arcane.
Trellimar, who can also see the light through holes in the wall, decides to simply approach it, causing it to retreat upstairs. Jiǔtóu boldly follows it and sees the sphere of light, which then suddenly vanishes; she continues, but finds nothing of note in the rooms on the first floor. Downstairs, the light pops up again, in between Elora and Trellimar, and goes down into the basement, almost as if it's guiding them. The pair follow it and find a desk, bookshelf and bedroll, all of which appear to be strangely untouched; Elora senses some kind of magic that may be acting as a protection spell.
Back upstairs, the sphere of light appears once more in front of Jiǔtóu, who tries to talk to it. She asks the light if it's the ghost of the boy from the story, but receives no response. When she questions whether or not it's harmful, the sphere suddenly attacks, firing an arc of lightning that only narrowly misses the tiefling. Elora, having heard the blast, runs upstairs and, upon seeing the light crackling with electricity, realises it's a will-o'-wisp. After attempting to grab it, Jiǔtóu attacks the will-o'-wisp with her guandao, but it isn't as effective as usual since the target lacks a solid form. The sphere of light then phases through the tiefling and, once it's behind Jiǔtóu, hits her hard in the back with another lightning strike.
Meanwhile, Trellimar goes towards the desk, but triggers the defense around it, which blows him off his feet and back towards the other side of the room. Having heard this, Elora decides the group needs to leave as soon as possible and shouts for everyone to get out, following which she flees the building. Jiǔtóu disengages from the will-o'-wisp and follows Elora, making it outside as well. Trellimar makes to flee as well, but he's faced with the will-o'-wisp just as he reaches the top of the stairs. He attempts to leap through a nearby window, but doesn't manage to break through and falls back onto the ground. Trellimar then casts Arms of Hadar to blow the will-o'-wisp away from him, following which he's rescued by Elora, who pulls him out of the house.
The trio run back all the way towards Tallfield, where they find an angry group of people trying to get into the marshall's office, where Vixanis is being held. An irritated Jiǔtóu makes her way through, before turning on the crowd and shouting at them that the group's investigations have made it clear that the murders were not committed by a drow. In reaction, most of the mob immediately backs off, with only four individuals standing their ground. One of them accuses Jiǔtóu of working with the drow, causing Elora to pull Trellimar along and step forward as well.
She defends her fellow teammates and attempts to console one of the four remaining people, a woman, who eventually breaks down into tears. At this, the other three men that were left lose their drive, with the rest of the crowd having long dispersed. After the townspeople have taken their leave, the trio goes inside to talk with the marshall and inform him of their findings. When Jiǔtóu asks about any folklore related to "a woman of bones", Vixanis speaks up, mentioning a children's rhyme she'd overheard about a "Nanny Bones". Calvin dismisses it as pure fiction, saying it's a story parents scare their children with, to make them behave.
Elora then asks about the children that have been going missing across the Dawn Republic, but Calvin says that's regarded as a seperate investigation that has been going on a lot longer. When asked about the ruined manor, he says that it belonged to a nobleman prior to the Lightfall and apparently has a hidden vault, though no one's managed to find it. The conversation then moves on to the will-o'-wisp residing in the farmstead, until a scream rings out, causing Calvin to run out. Elora and Trellimar follow after him, while Jiǔtóu decides to stay with Vixanis.
