“Great! They don’t live too far, I can easily bring them over. Just give me a few minutes to fetch them.” Sure enough after the old man left, he came back in a few minutes with three young but strong men, a rather portly woman, and a middle-aged looking man. “This Iola, she runs the general goods store. That’s Yerro, runs the grocer. The three lads are Toi, Krik, and Dura.”

The woman, Iola, spoke up. “Aye, that rats been into my secret coin stash, stealing at my life’s savings! Worse he took me old pap’s sword, bless his soul. I’d be in your debt if you could help me get it back!” Then the other man, Yerro, chimed in. “Fortunately for me he hasn’t stolen anything as valuable, mostly just pillaging my shop and making a mess of things. Still I can’t have him ruined my business either. I don’t have much but coin, but if you could bring him back to us to face justice I’ll throw in an extra reward on top of what we’re already paying.”

Finally the three young men spoke up, or at least Toi did. The others just nodded in agreement. Unlike the others Toi had an elvish look about him, but he was build big instead of lanky. “We ain’t warriors, but we can’t just do nuthin while this thief picks on our neighbors! Now that we know where that blighter comes from, me and the lads here can nab him if he tries to make a break for it. Out of the three I’m the fastest, but that thief is a quick climber. If you can somehow cut me off from climbing the roof, I’ll be right there with you to wrestle me down.”

The old man smiled and nodded as he looked back at you. “I’m Ricks by the way. As I mentioned before, our plan is mainly to cover every exit we can, to trap that rat in town. You can help you secure the thief, and with your help I’m sure this time we can bring his reign of terror to an end. Sounds good?”