Exploring the Menagerie

Continuing cautiously inside we noticed a cashbox had been pried open in the closest concession stand. We left that for now though as we heard the sound of something large eating in the next building over. As we approached, 2 Hyenas leapt out to attack! After a brief flurry and feathers and weapons we felled the beasts! We then noticed a single penguin atop a small island in a pool nearby. As we drew closer to the pool we saw blood and feathers in the water and around the edge of the island. We approached to deal with the menace in the water. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a large, poisonous snake that quickly had 2 of us down & the group retreating. Luckily, it did not follow us out of the water. We were able to retreat & recuperate. We were able to identify it as a Giant Viper. We put up some signs warning others of the danger in the water & went to see if there was anyone in need of aid or rescuing in the L-shape building nearby. Opening a locked door we found a monstrosity of some sort. It had eaten several people, but had a child trapped inside a cage behind a glass wall. We managed to defeat it and rescue the child. We took the child to stay with the blacksmith. Moving further into the building we next found the cell of the Rust Monster and then the cell of the Owlbear. Moving into the next area though we encountered a creature that looked like a rabbit with a horn on its head... It turned and bounded towards us. As we prepared for the battle a flying beetle came from a side room and straight at the group! After the fight we recognized the rabbit creature as an Almiraj, a magical beast. We also recognized the other creature as a Flash Beetle. We took some more time to rest and recuperate, allowing Elisan to heal up by the grace of Iomedae.
 
We then managed to break down the final door. Inside we found a large group of people who, it turned out, worked at the menagerie. 2 people stood out from the rest. Telomond & Raisa. They were thankful to be rescued & were able to start working on helping get the animals caged once more. We also found the father of the boy we had rescued. It was good to see their reunion! They offered up some Healing Potions that could be found in Mrs. Frum's wagon & pointed out which one that was. They told us the chicken creature was called a Cockatrice. The monstrosity was an Ankheg.
 
Telomond explained that the owner of the menagerie, a Mr. Knight, is away with the Vet, Mrs. Frum. They apparently have an ongoing, not so secret, tryst. Normally they are gone about a day, but this time they were gone for close to a week. They could not explain why Rusty would have gone crazy as he did. They knew of no rivals or anyone who would wish the menagerie or Mr. Knight harm. They did tell us that he was married and his wife would not be happy about the tryst, but that she was in a city nowhere near here, as far as they knew. We asked them if they had any way to deal with the Giant Viper safely. They said if we could clear the storage shed out they could use the equipment there to do so. When we opened the door we were confronted by an old Gnomish man. Once we calmed him, he told us a story of Rusty attacking him at feeding time & then Rusty going around opening other cages. He ran and secured himself in the storage shed to await rescue. We also checked all the creatures at this point and found they all had the same discoloration around their mouths. The Gnome man, Remy, told us the animals get their water from the cistern nearby. He was overjoyed to hear that Rusty was still alive. He could not think of anyone hanging around that did not belong here, nor anyone that would want to cause harm to the animals or the menagerie. We told the workers they could now get into the shed.
 
Next we went to the concession stand to look for clues. Other than the obviously damaged cash box, we did not find anything. Elisan went on ahead to Mrs. Frum's wagon while we investigated. He found notes about the different animals in the zoo written by the Vet. They detailed treatment and handling of the animals, basically anything that could be learned through a recall knowledge check. He found some minor healing potions as well as some other magic. He also found a diary, which he immediately read. The scandal! Each page detailed her affair with Archibald Knight. We all then moved into Mr. Knight's wagon. Inside, under a layer of dust, we found various magical items, some coins, a blowgun, amongst other things. We also found a letter. Opening it, we found an unsigned letter to a Laura Knight, telling her the marriage is over. Our feeling was that this was a letter that was ready, but Mr. Knight could never bring himself to send it. Having investigated and found no leads we gathered descriptions of Mr. Knight and Mrs. Frum, in case we happened across them.
On our way back to headquarters we noticed that the giant machine, Grave Raker, which had previously dominated the skyline, was missing.... We chose to file that away & continue back to headquarters to give our report. Once there we told Sgt. Ollo about our patrol that day, finishing with our end of day trip to rescue the people at the menagerie. We went to our beds for some much needed rest!
 
Early the next morning were called into Sgt. Ollo's office and given the task of finding where a bunch of missing people had gone. The largest single group of people was located at the Dragonfly Pagoda. We chose to start there. When we arrived, we found that the place was in a state of disarray, with people standing about yelling at one another. With some diplomatic skills and investigation we found out that the managers had hired a group of Kobolds, the Stonescales, to perform night work to make things go faster. Unfortunately, the Kobolds decided to take the day shift workers hostage and are now holed up inside, making nonsensical demands. We headed inside to see what could be done to diffuse the situation. A single Kobold met us inside the entry doors. She only spoke Draconic, leaving Jensen as the only one who could converse with her. He tried his best but it was not his night. Soon negotiations fell apart. She left to get something or other. We decided to wash our hands in the nearby fountains as we knew this was the polite thing to do in this type of temple. Which causes us to step right into a trap... Which dropped two of us and caused us to retreat from the temple. A different Kobold showed up looking for us while we went outside to heal up. It left disgruntled when we were not there. We headed inside again, where negotiations once again fell apart, leading to a fight with the initial Kobold. She went down quickly, but not before she took a few chunks out of the group.