The Search for the Brutal Pick

Tracy and her friends didn't comment much on what happened in the woods, despite the large number of people asking about what occurred. The police did investigate the case; the only records showed a man appearing out of nowhere, harassing three teenagers, saying something that wasn't recorded, and then being chased away by a fourth girl, already relatively well-known in the city. Renee was in the news again, this time for saving her former aggressors, which led to both a new reputation and more people signing up for the Fellows of the Hammer.

One of the club members, Timmy, a school nerd who had already had his share of annoyances with Renee herself, even confided in her at one point, "I joined the club partly because I expected to see you in embarrassing situations again," he said somewhat awkwardly. "But for some time now I've seen you with a newfound admiration. I feel I owe you an apology." Renee laughed a good-natured laugh at the confession and gave a firm squeeze on the shoulder. "Buy me a chicken sandwich later and you're forgiven, now get back to work, you've improved a lot since you started."

Timmy smiled and went back to working on a Damascus steel knife.

However, the search for the brutal pickaxe did not stop, and Moradin began making less discreet appearances far from the city to leave false clues of his presence away from his main target. It worked for a while, but Moradin didn't know how long he could keep the situation under control.

Renee kept up the pace, still studying hard enough to maintain perfect grades (Mordadin helped with that) and taking care of club activities, but she was so absorbed in the search for the Brual Pick, collecting clues and discarding hypotheses, that she barely noticed an important school event approaching: