"Perhaps we should consult with Consular DeNadria. Since it was her office that was breached, she may be willing to extend our authority here once the evidence is presented."
"That's a great idea, Adir! Let's go find her..." and Tethys starts to head back down the stairs.
Adir gives one last look at the bloodstain that Retzack found before he replaces the carpet. His look is both sad and angry as he follows his comrades.
Black Kappa
Ahh, there's something. You find a box, formerly labeled "security"; someone tried to paint over that label. Inside, a few things catch your eye. There's a couple of spare embassy security uniforms, including nightsticks; a small box labeled "Invis." containing a single stoppered vial (marked with a date from a few years ago); and a handful of thunderstones. At the bottom, underneath a few wrapped stacks of blank forms, you also find a piece of paper with a few addresses written on it in a slightly shaky hand.
What do you do?
Burke
Things seem to go quiet. A couple more embassy personnel come up and take watchful positions; you hear something that might be someone moving a chair around from an interior room. After a few minutes, you see the rest of your squad heading down some stairs. What do you do?
Adir, Tethys, Retzack (and Burke if you follow them)
You head back downstairs. When you reach the lobby, one of the receptionists asks if she can help you. When you ask for the consular, she leads you into a nearby office and asks you to wait for a few minutes. Shortly, a woman you assume is the consular enters; short, well built, with a little bit of grey hair near the small, straight horns sprouting from her forehead. " Welcome to my office; I'm sorry to meet you under such circumstances. How can I help the RHC?" she asks, calmly.
After several minutes of silence, Burke shakes his head with frustration and follows his fellow officers. He nods to his compatriots but remains silent, willing to let them take the lead with the consular.
He amuses himself by closely studying the consular's facial expressions.
Adir is wary as diplomats can be hard to read. Is she part of this? Ah, well, it was my suggested course. I must see this through.
Adir nods his head politely. "Consular DeNadria? This is your office, not the one on the fourth floor?"
She smiles, and turns around a nameplate on the desk: Asst. Sec. Closen. "No, my office is on the top floor, but with the disturbance we're having my security chief suggested we keep the upper floors clear, at least until we know what's going on. So, I'm borrowing this space for the moment."
Burke waits until he catches Adir's eye and then nods.
Tethys asks "Is there anything in your office of particular value, that someone would want to break in and steal it? Do you know if anything is missing from your office since the...incident?" waving her hand towards the front lawn and fence of the embassy.
Adir glances at Burke for only a moment. "I see," he says in acknowledgement to both the consular and Burke. "In our investigation into the death of the young woman, we have uncovered some inconsistencies and oddities. One of which is that your fourth-floor office appears to have been broken into. We are hoping to enter it and further our investigation. Also, it would be to the investigation's advantage if we can remove and interrogate your security chief, LeBrix. We have reason to believe he is involved in a deception regarding the death, as well as the theft."
Someone wanted these hidden. Too bad for them that I was the one looking.
Right now's not a good time to give the uniforms and the nightsticks a proper look over, and he can't really bring them with him. The vial, thunderstones and paper would need a container so they weren't impacted by his inner liquid, but he was in a storeroom.
Kappa gets searching again. Once he finds proper waterproof containment (Is it really so unreasonable to try and find a decent scroll case? Come on, one of these boxes!) he stuffs everything but the uniforms and nightsticks inside, puts the hidden box back, and finds a place that looks right for the box he dislodged getting in. All that done, he returns to the vents, replacing the cover behind him.
From there, he snoops around the third floor, checking for activity and targets of opportunity from inside the vent system.
The Office
She answers your questions calmly. "Yes, I was aware. I haven't had a chance to determine precisely what she made off with, but some of the documents relate to sensitive Danoran affairs. You understand, I hope, that I wasn't enthusiastic about those falling into the hands of the Risuri government. I thought we should merely stonewall you until we recovered our documents, but I allowed myself to be persuaded otherwise; clearly, that was a mistake.
I can't allow you to search my office; again, I handle sensitive matters on behalf of both my government and citizens.
I can assure you, however, the poor girl's death was entirely within the scope of Danor's laws for trespassing, as well as Risur's, as I understand them. Deeply regrettable, of course, but not something I can allow you to pursue my people for."
What do you do?
Kappa
You move up into the vent system, and resume making your way around the third floor. The first few windows are easy; most of the guards are still on the floor below, though more come upstairs quickly when you start making noise. Just as you start to ease open another vent, you hear footsteps leaving the room you're trying to enter. You were certain you didn't see anyone in there. What do you do?
Burke grimaces, but nods to Adir. Then he butts his way into the conversation.
Apologies Consular, am I to understand that a member of your office killed this woman? He hastens to add, Justifiably under my understanding of Danoran law of course.
Focusing hard on the consular in particular, Tethys tries to see beyond her words to what others can't see here.
Adir waits to see where Burke is going with his question.
The Office
The consular shakes her head. "She was discovered in my office, there was a brief scuffle, and she tried to flee out the window. My understanding is the wounds from landing on the fence were fatal."
Tethys
Something was bothering you about this office, and you've finally figured out what it was. The smell. There's a half eaten cassia roll on a plate, and the room's full of it's sweet-spicy smell, but mixed in with that...a hint of Fey pepper.
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Retzack grows impatient. The paper-pusher is obviously learned at skirting the truth. He was quite confident that she could dance around the obvious point all day, evading the palaldin's senses...
unless something more direct were applied?
Ah well, a weapon not used was not a weapon.
"Ah, yes, of course of course, ma'am. Most understandable. And of course you were right to do so," he says, buttering her up, preparing the battlefield.
"Um, ah, there's just a few, strictly standard questions to cover. Are there, ah, any magicians on your staff that were present at the incident? Or are there any magical defenses on the grounds? It might interfere with the tests done back at the lab, so we just need to know what to screen out. Strictly standard."
Maybe between the two of them they can get something to work with.
Burke leans back, content to watch.
The Office
"No, no magicians involved in the confrontation. The consulate has scrying and teleportation wards in place, which your office should already have the details of."
Tethys
Burke described the basics. There's one other thing Fey Pepper has in common with its fey namesake - if you don't know you're dealing with it, you can get in trouble very quickly.
...shenanigans. This is definitely shenanigans.
Shifting through the vent system, Kappa observes the area outside the room, and attempts to follow the footsteps. If there was someone who escaped his sight, then there was someone worth watching out for.
Pointing to her unfinished meal, Tethys says "Are you aware that there is fey pepper in that food? I would have thought that someone in your position couldn't afford an addiction. I mean, of course you could 'afford' it in the sense that you could pay for it, but...well, you know what I mean..."
Adir raises an eyebrow at that revelation. He watches for her reaction while also watching Burke to see his reaction to her reaction.
Kappa
You follow the footsteps into the hallway. From a vent, you see a guard, who startles visibly when a voice starts speaking. You can't hear everything, but it says something about valves; the guard nods and rushes off, and you hear a few moments later the slightly squeaky sound of moving metal echoing through the pipes. What do you do?
The Office
Tethys' revelation produces the first genuine reaction you've seen from the consular; she's astonished. She says, almost to herself, "Fey pepper? That's...that might explain why Closen was so odd this morning. But what about the others?". She looks at Tethys. "You're sure?"
Burke nods to Adir before speaking. Guardsman Crell is also showing signs of fey pepper poisoning. Guardsman Bree is certain Crell has never indulged in pepper before today.
Burke turns to Adir. Could you track other nearby sources of fey pepper? Perhaps we could track down the culprit.
Adir rubs his bearded chin thoughtfully. "Well done, Burke. If someone drugged the guards without their knowing, and intended to carry out a nefarious plan...if we assembled the people present in the embassy, I might smell traces of it on that person, or persons. Consular?" He raises an eyebrow at her, questioningly.
The Office
She nods. "I'm not going to pull LeBrix's men from this other disturbance, but I'll pull everyone else in immediately." She opens the door and calls out " Beatrice, could you have the staff gather in the lobby, please?"
• On a 10+, hold 3.
• On a 7–9, hold 2.
• On a miss, hold 1 in addition to whatever the GM says.
You may take on the physical form of any species whose essence you have studied or who lives in your land: you and your possessions meld into a perfect copy of the species’ form. You have any innate abilities and weaknesses of the form: claws, wings, gills, breathing water instead of air. You still use your normal stats but some moves may be harder to trigger. The GM will also tell you one or more moves associated with your new form. Spend 1 hold to make that move. Once you’re out of hold, you return to your natural form. At any time, you may spend all your hold and revert to your natural form.
That smell...now, with your heightened senses, it's easy to follow. Several trails in the lobby, close to the open sky. Some of the two-legs have the scent on them, but there's a stronger scent, coming from one of the other caves-within-caves. Inside, a wood shelf, with several two-legs foods on it...including meat. Just there, for the taking. Cold now, but you're hungry enough that it doesn't matter....it tastes good.
The rest of you see Adir transform, and inspect the staff, before heading into a side room labeled "Staff". There's a box on the table with various breakfast foods in it, and Adir has just finished devouring several sausage links. Behind you, one of the staff mutters that Nilasa had brought breakfast for the staff that morning.
What do you do?
Adir rolls on the ground, tossing the meat in the air with his front paws. As people approach, he rolls over onto his side, growling. He leaps up and lets out a loud howl. The moment that he finishes, he takes off running through the embassy, doing circles throughout its halls. His claws audibly slip on the floor as he tries to gain traction to turn corners. Rugs are disturbed, sometimes flung to the walls by his momentum.
Come on, are they trying to flush me out? This just gets better.
Kappa starts paying a lot more attention to what's going on inside the vents, as he did to the piping. Things probably boded ill for him if he didn't.
I'm getting too old for this ...
Burke moves off in pursuit of Adir, and attempts to tackle him to the ground.
Adir does not resist, though his legs do kick a bit as if still trying to run.
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Kappa
You've passed several valves that could be used to seal off parts of the ventilation system. Your best guess - it's hard to tell with all the echoes - is that a number of the connections between the second and third floors are being closed. If you don't move fast, you won't be able to leave the way you came in! What do you do?
Ground Floor
Burke, you (eventually, after several and with the assistance of a couple of embassy staffers blocking other hallways) manage to corral your colleague. Once you get him restrained, he reverts to his normal form shortly. As you look around, it's fairly obvious the embassy staff now have a fairly low opinion of you. The consular approaches you, and says in a low voice, " While I appreciate you pointing out the Fey pepper to me, I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave. We've really had quite enough incidents for one day. I'll keep your office appraised if we discover anything about the young woman." What do you do?
"It would look better to your superiors and ours if this remained a joint investigation. I realize that this is *your* embassy, but we have made some important discoveries in the investigation so far, and it *might* just look like you're trying to cover something up if you kick us out now."
Adir hangs his head in shame. There was always a risk in losing himself temporarily, but this was an incredibly inopportune moment for it to happen. "I'll go," he says simply and walks away.
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Retzack had been lost in his own thoughts, the futility of the thing encasing him like the inevitable march of time, but as Tethys so boldly, so bravely, so fool-hardly charges in to the diplomatic flank, he lights up. Though still convinced that the effort would be fruitless, he always was a sucker for a lost cause. And this way he can always blame it on her if it fails. Win-win all around.
"I think what my esteemed colleague is trying to get at," he intros as he intervenes congenially, "Is that in this -particular- case, appearances need to be kept up. It's a -very- fragile and delicate matter, and, if we start getting sucked into the bureaucratic minutiae of "who" is "allowed" "where" and "when" and at "what" "time" then the whole thing takes on a life of it's own."
His smile runs away and his voice turns dark. "And it could spiral out of control. Powers, beyond us, might look at the reason -behind- the reason, and take...umbrage." His head lowers and his eyebrows raise knowingly, as if imparting an inside fact.
Then the smile returns. "We are, after all, just going about the routine. Give us some more time and thy indulgence, and we'll try to cross all the 'T's and dot all the 'I's as quick as we can. Oh of course there may be minor hickups, but those will sort themselves out. So why slam the gates and take the Aspect of War when there is no reason to, eh?"
The words sound so smooth that one might even start to wonder if Retzack actually believes all this himself.
The Consular reacts angrily. "No reason? Because in addition to the unfortunate death this morning, the theft of documents from my office which have yet to be recovered, and the ongoing assault upstairs, your antics here are further impeding my office's ability to serve my citizens." Beatrice hands her a small china cup; she startles, but then takes a slow sip, and continues, more calmly. "But, I suppose, it is what it is. You may continue here, but I must tell you, any further disruptions to my operations and I will have you removed. I hope we're clear on that." Her diplomatic mask is fully back in place, now. "Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
Kappa's eyes narrow. I guess I'll have to abandon the task of the windows, for now. Seems it's time to return to the others.
Surging through the ventilation, Kappa attempts to get back down before the passages between floors get sealed off.
Now that it's apparent that we're not being kicked out, Tethys asks Adir if he can remember who among the gathered staff had the smell of fey pepper on them, before he got...distracted.
Once they're picked out, Tethys will ask the Consular to identify them and their jobs in the embassy.