A Dead Man's Fortune: Lord Cain's Manor

Olive briskly walked over to the dead man's manor as soon as she heard the news. Olive was able to stop during her daily task long enough to hear the important bits of the speech. Olive wouldn't say she needed the money, her family had lots of wealth. Sadly, none of it truly belonged to her. A part of her knows she's better than this, but another part is tired and bored with her monotonous life and would cry if she had to spend another day trying to train those idiots at the royal guard. Olive always did like a little challenge and a little friendly competition can be good now and again.

The inside of the manor is dimly lit by a few candles along the brick walls. A wooden side door can be found by the west side of the manor, its locks can be easily picked by those with the right tools...or broken down by those that wish. The side door leads into a pantry room of sorts with jars of spices, meats, and a plethora of herbs and multiple large selves of different assortments of bread. Lord Cain really didn't like underseasoned meals. In the middle of the pantry is some sort of preparation table and on it is even more bread, who knew a person could love grains this much. There is a door directly across the pantry from the side door that leads into the kitchen.

Olive has decided to enter through the front doors. She always liked making an entrance. The entrance leads into a foyer with a statue of a gladiator in the middle of the room. Behind the gladiator is a flight of stairs leading up to a balcony overlooking the foyer. To the right and left of the entrance are two large doors, one into the dining room and another to a study. The dining room contains an adjacent room leading into the kitchen and pantry room. A loud voice booms throughout the entirety of the manor alerting those who have gathered inside. "Welcome everyone to the manor. It is I, the lawyer once again. Now Lord Cain always liked playing games and there is a piece you need to acquire to unlock a compartment with his fortune. Now There are a total of 6 pieces and this compartment can not be broken into by lock picking, or just forced o0pen. I will tell you right now that you may want to remember Lord Cain's accomplishments. He has attributed many to this town and its associated regions and if you have forgotten the library would be a good place to review. The 6 pieces are located in the areas of Lord Cain's favorite locations within the house and I'll give you a hint for the first piece. 'my most joyful times are found within this room, I have made many creations and many decadent ideas have been birthed here. Through the creation of the items in this room can connect cultures and regions without even having to say a single word"

Olive clicks her tongue at the lawyer's words. Lord Cain is said to be a powerful spellcaster, Olive didn't personally meet Lord Cain but knew that her town dedicated a statue in his honor. "hmm something that connects people without speaking a single word. Easy easy." in every diplomatic meeting she was been to with her father, they have brought a food dish from their region to better understand the different cultures. Even if there is a language barrier food is usually the one language everyone knows. Olive walks quickly through a few rooms passing by other people, until she finds the kitchen.

Olive quietly enters through a pair of mahogany wood swinging doors. The kitchen doesn't have any windows or openings looking into the dining room or into the pantry room. Next to the small door leading into the pantry room are long wooden cabinets and iceboxes to keep a variety of meat and vegetables fresh. Even though Lord Cain has been dead for a few weeks the food items in the kitchen seem fresh. Along the walls of the rectangular-shaped kitchen are a few long steel tables, stoves, ovens and several different assortments of knives, and cooking utensils are hung on the wall above the long tables. In the middle of the room overhead is a rack made for hanging pots and pans and cutting boards. In the corner of the room, is a glass cupboard of lavish wines and crystal wine glasses.

The slight heel on olives boots makes a clicking sound on the checkered tiles as she enters and spots the scaly stranger.
"I see you also figured out his little clue. Trust me you aren't going to find what you're looking for if you don't know where to start." Olive looks around for some sort of recipe book. The statue her town dedicated to Lord Cain was for a cooking competition that took place between nobles of several regions. Lord Cain's dish was unanimously chosen as the winner by a panel of blind taste testers.

Olive finds a recipe book leaning nicely against the leg of a table.

Olive puts the recipe book on a nearby table and looks at it carefully. The book's pages are frayed worn from years of use the spin barely attached by a few threads. "traps? A man who spent countless hours in the kitchen wouldn't want to take the extra time to disarm his own traps, but if you must then you're welcome to have a look at it. However, if you run off with that book just know I can easily catch you and you'll lose a few scales in the process." Olive says gesturing to her sword at her hip. "if we are going to work together, for the time being, it's best to know each others names don't you think?"

"Olive Atwood, nice to meet you. Hm I don't think this recipe book is what we need but what is inside it. Lord Cain was very fond of cooking and I wouldn't be surprised if a piece was inside one of his favorite recipes. I say we start looking for the pages that look the most worn." Olive says as she starts flipping open the book. The recipe is bound by a smooth leather cover. Within, are hundreds of recipes to choose from. Lord Cain must've cooked all of these recipes at least once. There are a few recipes who's pages are faded and wrinkled. Those are the ones that must've been Lord Cain's favorite and..they all involve bread: a flatbread with a tomato sauce and cheese on top toasted in a stone oven, a bowl made of bread with some sort of creamy mushroom soup in the middle, and a vanilla bread pudding. These recipes seem to be cooked quite often with him making small notes and changes in the margins of the pages.

Olive shows Oobie the recipes. "I believe these are the ones that Lord Cain used the most now I'm not sure if the piece is hidden in one of the ingredients or we have to cook these meals, but either way we need to gather the ingredients."

Olive skims the recipes. "the things that are underlined and taken note of are cooking times and changes to the measurements depending on how many people there are. I'm pretty sure someone who spent lots of hours in the kitchen wouldn't want another person destroying their pantry but rather make something from it and by the look of these recipes it seems like a 3-course meal."

The page that Oobie is looking at has the recipe for the stone baked flatbread (the pizza.) The ingredients are fairly simple, dough, tomatoes, basil, Rosemary, salt and pepper for taste, and a mixture of cheeses. Olive at first didn't think the kitchen had a stone oven but eventually noticed the outline of one hidden behind a cloth hamper containing dirty aprons. 

Olive nods and brings the recipe book with her and gathers the recipe for all three recipes. The two begin cooking the recipes separating the work to make things go faster. They work together making the fresh dough, spreading on the seasoned tomato sauce and sprinkling a healthy dose of cheese to complete the pizza. The only thing left now is to put it in the stone oven. Olive clears the obstruction from in front of the oven and starts trying to get the oven to work.

(no worries, hope you're feeling better)

"set it to a medium flame and we can put this saucy cheesy flatbread in and watch it until it's done cooking." Olive puts the pizza into the stone oven using a wooden peel and the two watch until the cheese is melted and sizzling before pulling it out and working on the other two recipes which seemed, the mushroom cream soup in a bread bowl and the caramel bread pudding.

"we'll find out when we get there, all we can do now is wait." Olive smiles and starts whistling a chippy tone and work on the creamy mushroom soup and making caramel for the bread pudding. "Lord Cain is an interesting man. I never knew someone could cook so many different foods with bread. I always thought of bread as just bread and didn't really think someone would get as creative as he did. He went around local regions getting people to taste his food. Nothing brings strangers together like a good meal."