We took the caravan back up to the northern side of the jungle. The Chief of the previous village suggested starting here and circling around the country and then returning to the center when we’re done. We made it back to the swamp in a short amount of time. When we arrived we sought out their chief and asked him what we could help with. 

He thought about it for a moment then said, “Our village has had a bit of a crime problem recently. If you could lower the crime rate that’d be very helpful.” 

How the hell am I supposed to lower the crime rate? Who does he think I am? The Mayor of Detroit? 

“Alright, we’ll try to figure it out.” I told him. 

The party and I split up and started asking the locals some questions. Apparently there’s been a string of thievery happening lately, people are missing valuables and personal items but for some reason they refuse to tell me what the personal items are. 

We met back up and discussed what we found out. We have no suspects or leads and the sun is going to set in a few hours. We decided to run a stakeout for the night. We rested up, and come sundown, we split up again and each of us watched over a different section of the town. 

The fog was dense and the dark made it harder to see. I couldn’t find anything suspicious in my area. After a while of waiting, I felt something tap me on my shoulder. I jumped out of my seat and screamed. When I turned around I saw Voyd standing there. 

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked her. 

“My life detection spell picked up something sneaking into a house.” She said. 

“Oh Alright, you go get the others. I’ll go check it out.” I said.

I went down to where Voyd told me the break in was. I didn’t hear anything going on inside. I crept around to the side and peeped in through a window. I saw a lizard rummaging through someone’s bedroom and it looked like there was a lump the size of a person underneath the covers of the bed. The one rummaging was making very little noise. It’s obvious he’s a thief. I waited for the others to arrive before confronting him, just in case he tries to run. 

When the others arrived, Killer and I jumped through the window while Ro and Voyd watched the exits. I pointed my gun at him and yelled, “Freeze!” Killer pounced on him and tackled him to the ground. The lady in the bed woke up startled. 

“It’s alright miss, we caught this man stealing from you.” I told her. 

Then Ro and Voyd entered the room. 

“It’sssss not what it looks like!” The thief said. 

I picked up his bag and looked inside. 

“Hold on, it’s just a bunch of clothes.” I said. 

I took a garment out and realized that it was actually a bag full of p*nties. 

“Hold on, you were doing a p*nty raid?” I asked. 

“Yeah…” He said. 

“Just go ahead and shoot him.” Ro said with a disgusted look on her face. 

“Please don’t hurt me! I’m sorry!” The thief screamed. 

“Wait just a sec, have you stolen anything other than p*nties?” I asked. 

“No, I swear!” The thief replied 

“This isn’t the guy we’re looking for, but we’ll take him to the chief anyways and come up with a new plan for tomorrow.” I told the group. 

We brought the p*nty thief back to the chief and told him the whole story. 

“Well, even if this isn’t our main crook, it’s still good you caught him.” The chief said. 

“Yeah, but this guy was an amateur. If we wanna catch the main thief we’ll have to change our strategy.” I said.

 “Any ideas?” The chief asked. 

“I think we probably tipped off the main guy while we were going around questioning. If he’s smart, he’ll lay low until we leave.” Ro said. 

“How do you suggest we solve that problem?” The chief asked. 

“How about we pretend the p*nty thief was the real crook and then we’ll act like we’re leaving with a caravan and hop off as soon as we’re out of the village.” She said. 

“That’s a great idea! But we have to make sure everyone in the village knows you’re gone, so I’ll throw a farewell ceremony.” The chief replied. 

“Perfect, we’ll see you tomorrow then.” I replied. 

We stayed the night in a spare room the chief had. In the morning, we went to where the caravans depart from. There was a group of lizard people waiting and the chief brought us up to a raised platform. 

“Ladies and gentlemen! These courageous travelers have done our town a great service, they caught the deviant responsible for the recent string of break ins and brought him to justice!” The chief said. 

The crowd cheered. 

“To show my gratitude, I’ve prepared these ornaments that will act as a medal of honor.” He said. He then handed each of us small wooden pins with gold accents. 

These look mediocre compared to the jewelry Alaya had on, but this is a fake reward. We then left with the caravan while the locals cheered us goodbye. As soon as we lost sight of the village, we hopped off and set up camp on the outskirts while we wait for nightfall. 

During the wait, we told Voyd to rest so she could keep her detect life spell active all night. The rest of us kept a close watch on the camp but the visibility was extremely low with all the plants and fog. Nothing happened for a while, but then I heard some commotion coming from where Killer was. Ro and I rushed over, we saw him wrestling with a crocodile that was the size of a bear. Both of us aimed our weapons but with their sporadic movement, neither of us could get a clean shot. 

Killer eventually got a hold of its tail and swung it against a tree. He then grabbed his flail and started whacking it over and over again until it stopped moving. 

“You see, that’s why you shouldn’t p*ss him off.” I told Ro. 

“Whatever.” She replied. 

We went back to our posts and waited for nightfall. As soon as the sun set, we made our way back to the village and Voyd activated her spell. It wasn’t long until she detected movement outside. We kept our distance until Voyd said they entered one of the houses and then we surrounded it. 

With the same strategy as last time, Killer pounced on the culprit while I had my gun drawn on him and the girls watched the exits. 

“Hey! Let go!” The thief yelled. 

The homeowners woke up and came to see what was going on. 

“Give it up, we know you’re the real thief.” I said. 

“How did you know? I made sure no one was looking.” The thief replied. 

“The loli here knows life detection magic. She tracked everyone’s movement throughout the village.” I told him. 

“Dammit! And I woulda gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for that meddling kid!” The thief said. 

Ro high fived Voyd then we brought the criminal back to the chief. He thanked us and gave us a signed paper for Alaya. After spending the night again, we left towards the next tribe.