He ran through the hallway. He may not have been the best of friends with his teammates, but they were still teammates. Deciding to go for speed over formality, he kicked in the door to the room and strode in. He was just quick enough to see a bolt of light explode into a figure in the room. He stepped back quickly and just dodged the flying corpse of another invader. Looking inside he saw The Light Cleric sit up and point a wand at him. He instantly put his hands up and spoke.

"Shit, relax. It is me. Remember, your pal, The Fire Druid?"

She seemed to visibly relax, and she put down the wand. "Did you check on The Paladin yet?"

He remembered what he was doing and swore under his breath. He ran further down the hall and kicked in the next door. Inside The Paladin was in the middle of fighting two assassins. This froze him for a second. They had sent two after him? He was almost offended, he was much more dangerous than The Paladin, not to even mention The Light Cleric. Directing this anger to the assassins he aimed his hand towards the one who just disengaged and went through some quick motions. A bird of fire shot from his arm and swallowed the man whole. An unholy scream was heard from the man as his flesh began to burn. The other assassin hesitated for a second and The Paladin saw an opening and struck. With that the assassins had been dealt with.

They regrouped in the hallway, packing their belongings in a hurry. They did not know their next steps yet and even though they all had ideas, the unspoken rule was to get out of here. They stood there for a few seconds looking at each other, each wondering what the others were thinking. In the end The Fire Druid was the first to speak.

"So, we all agree, it is the mayor, right? I mean, that makes the most sense. I say we go after him now, get this over with and go home."

The Paladin was quick to respond. "We don't know it was the mayor, while it is suspicious, this situation makes too little sense for me."

"Of course, this makes no sense to you. You don't want to see what's going on here."

"Don't start with this again."

"WHY NOT. This is just government corruption again; I say we burn him the fuck down. The town can elect someone new in their place and we can go back home and sleep in our own beds."

He saw seething now. They could not see it, of course they could not, everyone else was blind to stuff like this. Well, maybe not blind, but they willingly turned their gaze from this stuff, it was just like this in the real world as well. He was just happy that here he could actually burn the scum

away, that was not really an option back home. The Light Cleric spoke before he could go on another tirade.

"How about we get somewhere else to stay first? I saw the empty mine they have here a couple days ago. There are plenty of empty chambers there we can at least get our remaining rest. Then, in the morning we can discuss our next steps, carefully."

"FINE."

"That seems like an excellent idea, maybe in the morning calmer heads will prevail."

Grumbling all the way there, they made their way to the abandoned mine and an empty chamber within. The decor was actually more calming to him than the village was, at least this they all knew. A dark place filled with dangers was almost a second home to these adventurers. They all had portable bedrolls by now, it was not comfortable in and of itself, but the nostalgia made it on par with the beds in the inn. In the morning, The Fire Druid had calmed down a little. That, however, did not make him calm.

"I still say we burn down the mayor's home and him with it."

The collective sigh from the others was one in a long series of sighs that composed the morning. The Paladin decided to be proactive this time.

"I agree that the mayor is likely corrupt. The question is whether or not he is the killer we are looking for."

The Light Cleric took the pauze in conversation to step in. "Not to mention that the mission says arrest. Not kill."

"We can arrest his heart. That is a kind of arrest, actually I prefer cardiac arrest to a physical arrest."

Another sigh later, they returned to the topic of their current mission. Again, The Paladin tried to guide the conversation back to the current issues.

"We also need to arrest someone; I suppose that means getting at least some form of authority. If we kill the mayor, we could miss out on that."

"Why do we need authority for an arrest? Just say that you arrest them and be done with it."

The Light Cleric looked up from the tablet she had picked up. "Wait. OH HECK. I think we missed something."

Seeking an escape from the conversation, The Paladin responded quickly. "Oh, what have you found?"

"The mission. It says to find and arrest the killer. Find being the key word here. We have seen all the villagers; they would not need to be found."

"I thought that just means discover who the killer is. Right?"

Even The Fire Druid was nodding at this. "But that isn't what it said. During my second clerical trail there was something similar. The mission there was to follow the light, it made a straight path over one of those tile puzzles. I swear, I spent more than 10 minutes testing before taking a step. The whole process took more than a day of feeling out every step. All I had to do was walk forward, the exact path the light had taken."

There was a sudden silence while they took in this story and its possible implications. The Fire Druid was first this time. He had calmed during the

story, well, at least a little bit.

"So what? We go down and search the whole village for someone who we haven't seen in the whole week?"

"I don't know. I do think that the killer is more hidden in the literal fashion. I say we go out at night and go through the cellars, sewers and attics of

the houses until we find someone hiding there."

The Paladin had been thinking but decided to add his two cents. "It's better than simply killing the mayor. I'm in."

"I'll write down killing the mayor as solid plan b then."

With a final sigh, they packed up their gear and planned to move out again. This time with a plan of repeated break-ins in mind.