"Great, my name is Nathan Jierre and I have zinformation fur zour King, mon amis" says the tiefling.
"part of our job is to ensure your safety, if I heard correctly, there was a bonus in it for us."
Well if we can escort you to the king along with the Duchess then so be it. says angus agreeing with Cretien
The Danoran is ecstatic at the prospect of being brought to Risur and he says, Thank you!!! Very Much!!!"
Waterhouse and Chretien get healed by some of the medics from the military and Captain Smith lights up a stogie as the Duchess, Asrabey and Nathan Jierre are escorted to another one of the fleet's ships.
The military grabs the duchess’s forces, loads its people on ships, and the duchess in chains, and departs. Eventually only the Impossible remains behind, with Sergeant Glassman and his squad completing their search of the tower. Near sunset, a steam-powered Danoran warship named Lux Profectusque — squatter and slower than the Coaltongue, but sturdier for open seas travel—coasts into the Axis Fortress harbor. Using the telescope you can see the female tiefling astride the ship's cannon as the ship steams in, and you recognize the passenger: Lya Jierre, Danor's Minister of Outsiders.
She disembarks and marches up the keep with authority, flanked by a pair of unusual bodyguards. The first, Rush, is a snide half-elf who carries a pair of elaborately decorated platinum rods, slotted into holsters at his hips. Amid images of roiling clouds and celestial spheres, two golden buttons stand out by each rod’s gripping end. The man’s forearms are massively muscled. The second, a hulking half-deaf half-orc named Merton, wears a steel helmet with unusually thick protection over his ears, but otherwise has no armor. He holds a thickly-wrapped object, like an overlong walking staff, twice as thick at the top as where he holds it. Layers of white cashmere conceal the object’s head.
'Congratulations!' Lya greets you with a smile, and asks if she can take back her country’s island. She’d like to know what happened, 'especially to my cousin Nathan. Captain Smith said that he has survived. - is he still here?'
"Yes." Cretien says, "Although it would seem that he is none too keen on going back to Danor. Not sure why. Not really my business."
Johnathan sees the Captain light up and hurries to follow suit--coughing on smoke. He's still somber, but smirks a bit seeing Lya, trying to imagine what flirtatious remark Joseph would have said in this moment, but can't come up with anything. He stays silent instead, looking weary and somehow older than when he left.
As you explain all the day's events and findings she asks pointed questions all the way through, and you can tell that the young woman is unusually bright. 'So it seems the duchess had insider knowledge of the teleport circle. Did you ever discover who in Axis Fort was the Danori traitor? This is the sort of information that might be awkward if it came out later? Was there any clue when you searched the tower?' Her question seems loaded, as if she knows more than she is saying, but you can't be sure - the tiefling misses nothing.
She produces a pair of matching documents, minor treaties that plainly state that Risur condemns the duchess' attack on the island and will not press a claim to it on account of this particular military event. 'As the only non-military Risuri representatives on the island you are empowered to sign on behalf of Risur', she says, passing a quill to Merle. 'I'll send a message to the Danoran rebels in the jungle that control has been reasserted - you six should probably leave soon; not all my people are as fond of Risur as I am.'
'Your bravery during this ordeal surely averted war between our two nations - from the bottom of my heart I thank you. Perhaps you will even consider doing me a small favor Professor?', she asks Chretien. Would you be able to build me a something like your mechanus but large enough to fit two people, see my wedding will be in the winter and the king and I are of the opinion that a mechanical-magic marvel would be the perfect symbolic union of our two nations. Would you do me the honour? The wedding's not for several months - but that it will happen at all is entirely thanks to you, and to your team.' She leans in closer. 'And to be honest, the only options are you or Massarde and well he does my head in - with his incessant drinking. I need at least one person at my side who'll keep me sane.' It dawns on you that the marriage she is talking about is to King Aodhan of Risur - Lya Jierre is about to become your queen.
"Yes, I believe with a bit more research and funding, I could certainly make something as functional, but more... suitably elegant."
She smiles and says, "My uncle le souverain will be most pleased with any and all of your efforts professor. I will have some requisition forms sent to you c/o of your office at the university and I will have the King speak with the chancellor as well to get the ball rolling."
With that, there’s nothing left to do but board the Impossible and sail
back to Risur.
Well i think you are on your way to becoming famous Cretien says angus with a smile
Merle takes the proffered quill, and shakily signs his name to the document. It is obvious that he in accustomed to being accountable for anything but following the orders of someone else.
"Well, that would be nice!" Cretien says with a tired smile.
Once the group makes it back to Flint, the debriefings begin. Two days later, Burton arrives from Axis Island and he flashes you all a large smile and thanks you for saving his life before he is brought by train to Slate to be properly healed.
Two days hence, a large ceremony is held for the Arvangale Wintry and Joseph Reginald Coopsworth for their gallantry. Merle becomes a favorite of the press because Flinters are extremely enamored with veterans doing well. He gives interviews that come off a bit gruff but seem to give the people what they want, an anti-hero.
Routine sets in about two weeks later and the search for the Gale terrorist becomes the party's primary task set forth by Chief Inspectress Saxby, Delft's boss and ultimately yours as well.
After about a month your group gets called into Slate to testify against the Duchess and her treasonous where she gets let off fairly lightly for attempted Fratricide, Regicide and High Treason, where she is stripped of her title of Duchess and her magical powers a mostly torn away from her. Now just Ethelyn, she’s imprisoned in the Bridge Tower in Slate.
The Daily Routine is you meet up at the office in the morning, go over your cases with Delft and then go onto your investigations and/or your day jobs.
Johnathan will pester Cretien to let him watch the carriage side-project when possible. Always curious.
After the hullabaloo regarding visions, Cretien wouldn't have a problem with someone around who could potentially ward off disaster.
CHAPTER II: The Dying Skyseeker
The first day of Summer 500 AOV:
Forty years ago the city of Flint was a second-tier port, mostly a haven for fishermen and loggers. Still struggling to overcome the stigma of having once been the domain of a perilous coven of witches, Flint was prosperous, but played little role in Risuri affairs.
Then the Third Yerasol War ended and the new king declared Flint would be his nation’s seat of industry. Mines in the Anthras Mountains poured iron and coal downriver to Flint’s harbor. Old forests within the city limits were clear-cut and factories erected in their place to build guns, refine alchemicals, and forge steel rails and train cars.
Thousands of immigrants and gold-seeking villagers crowded into shabby
flophouses and tenements around the factories, then when those were filled they built new slums on the sides of the city’s steep hills. Smoke and soot poured forth from factory roofs, and criminal elements took root beneath these gloomy clouds, growing strong and feeding on the desperation of a new population of workmen, prostitutes, and orphans.
In places, Flint’s historical beauty still endures—in the governor’s island mansion fortress, high atop haunted Cauldron Hill, deep in the breeze-swaying branches of the Cloudwood, and on the bayou plantations west of Pine Island. And the confluence of people from so many stations has inspired great art and technological innovation. But cracks between competing groups are straining the peace, and all it would take are a few disasters to drive the city apart.
For the past few months, tiny tremors have shaken the city of Flint, which has no history of earthquakes. Docker poets take it as a manifested metaphor of the rifts opening up between the different districts and cultures. Angry protesters march through Bosum Strand and Parity Lake to denounce the cruel treatment of factory workers, and the police thrash those who make too big a name for themselves.
RHC Flint Local Headquarters, Central Quarter Flint, 1st June 500aov, 11.00am.
It's hot. Years from now, when it gets hot in the morning, people will say 'Its hot, but not as hot as the morning the Affair of the Dying Skyseer started'.
It’s just before 11 a.m. on the First Official day of Summer and the stupid blind is broken and won't open so everyone's sitting in the monochrome gloom. The six of you are going over leads in the Gale 'environmental-terrorist' investigation. Mithas - bored - puts down the latest issue of the Flint Tribune, moves out from the shadows to the window, still smoking, forcibly parts the sticky slats and looks out across the oppressive city.
You hear the tap-tap-tap of a cane hitting the floor as your superior, Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft, interrupts the boredom,
“Time for some field work, constables. We just received a delightful
report about the perfect lead for you. Young woman, identity unknown,
jumps out of the fourth floor window at the Danoran consulate, impales
herself on the spires of the compound fence, and perishes. Technically
half of her is in our jurisdiction, which is good for you because the fence she landed on was forty feet from the window. Seems like our young
victim thought she could fly.”
When did that happen ? Are the Danoran going to allow us to remove the body for our investigation?
"Earlier this morning, latest 930" says Delft as he spits brown tobbacco juice into a trash bucket and then continues, "Well, I would gather so, because we got halfies," he chuckles lightly.
'Eleven o'clock on the first day of summer', he points out. 'You'll need to keep track. It takes an hour or so to get to the consulate. I want you all back here first thing tomorrow morning no matter what happens to go over the case with me.' He moves to the chalk board above Chretien's desk and sweeps away all the previous leads on Gale - they were going nowhere anyway. 'We start this new case from scratch. We'll mark this board with key figures, locations, and events, with arrows tracing their connections, as usual. If we can't solve the Gale case, at least we should be able to solve this one little murder. Anything to get Saxby off our backs.'
He coughs up a little black sludge and says, "Any more questions?"
"What are we to do if there are, how do I put this... Diplomatic complications?"
"I could just try going to ask them about the case. I'm not to social, but they might talk anyway. Any problems with that, ACI?"
Delft says, "Collect evidence, interview witnesses and do some damn GOOD PO'Lice work. Remember soft eyes gentlemen, soft eyes. "
He then turns to Chretien and says, "Well, professor that is the smartest thing I've heard you say in a month. The carriage is outside waiting for you!"
Alright lets head down there shall we
once inside the carriage angus will ask Do anyone know a spirit medium, we could try first asking a few questions to the dead body?
"I Do not know a spirit medium. That said, how do we want to proceed?" he asks, looking at Merle in an expectant manner. "Do we want to split up to cover more ground, interview contacts, or just head over there as one big group to inspect the initial scene and then go from there?"
"Well let's get down to the embassy and find the corpse."
A carriage is waiting to convey the party to the Danoran consulate,
and even with official seals on its doors to help clear the way, the ride
takes nearly an hour. The late spring morning is warm and muggy, and
a foul breeze blows a cloak of smog over the normally clear-skied North
Shore district. The street that runs past the consulate has no buildings
on its opposite side, just beach, but four Flint police officers are trying to block off access to gawkers. A black coroner’s carriage waits outside the consulate gate; the back door is open, and its driver sits on the slab where a dead body should go, looking bored.
By the time the party arrives, nearly two hours have passed since
the woman’s death. Alfred Bellastair, the officer in charge, looks at
his cheap pocket watch as you approach, then impatiently comes
forward and says:
“We responded to some panicked witnesses, and by the time the first of our men got here the Danorans had taken the victim off the fence and carried her inside. But everyone had pretty much the same story. They heard gun retorts, saw the woman jump out the window, and she landed on the fence. One scoundrel apparently stole stuff off her body and ran away as she was bleeding out. The Danorans wouldn’t let us inside, but I yelled at them that you’d be showing up,and they said they wouldn’t get rid of the body. The guy you want to talk to is the
security chief, Julian LeBrix."
“You can handle the investigation from here without my men, right? We’ve got
better things to do than sit around for another hour while the “special constables”
drink up the hospitality of the Danorans.”
Johnathan approaches the fence, looking up at the iron spikes atop it. His eyes follow the blood trail down the bars to the small pool underneath. When Bellstair remarks about the 'hospitality of the Danorans', Johnathan turns around quickly and hurries back, keeping his eyes on the ground.
Bellastair looks and then chuckles as Johnathan runs back to the carriage, looks at Merle and says, "Hehe, got a tenderfoot wit ya, huh. Hope he gets a little gravel in his guts... Normally, we'd have a homicide detective come and handle this but, international affairs and yadayadayada."
"We need to see the body, why not start their. Maybe someone with ease of conversation and smoothness of tongue might wish to investigate around and see if any witnesses are to be found." Savan will wait patiently for a few seconds before marching his way up to the front door of the consulate, or gate if they won't let him in.
"Can't imagine I'll be much use inside. I'll ask around."
Mithas wanders over to the bloodstained fence. He inhales deeply.
"The stench of violence lingers. The spirit remains tied to this place where it died and shall for a little while longer. I can call it back briefly and it may tell us things we wish to know, but we will not have much time for discussion. We should investigate what happened first, so we may know which are the right questions to ask."
Alright then lets go talk to security chief first and the danoran eye witness first. Angus will follow the goblin
Cretien, not being a personable sort but hoping that he will be seen in a favorable light by the Danorans, will go inside.
All minus Johnathan and Merle:
The Danoran security chief Julian LeBrix meets the party at the gate
to the consulate, while cleaning staff work to scrub blood and viscera off the fence just beside the gate. LeBrix introduces himself, then walks the party in through the courtyard gardens into the entry hall of the consulate. Along the way he says:
“This is a mess. I took a diplomatic post to avoid having to see blood and death anymore. It has our people shaken up—none of them ever saw war—and so I hope you can take the woman’s body and go quickly. Better for everyone I think if the consular doesn’t have to be bothered. He has more important things on his mind than a burglary. We have treaty negotiations, trade contracts, and you don’t want powerful men thinking about death when they’re deciding our fates, you know?"
“The woman went by the name Nilasa Hume. She’s been in a few times these past few months. Seemed nice enough. She brought us breakfast this morning. One of our security personnel, Braden, was dating her. She used him to case the building, and must have overheard someone talking about upstairs.
“I noticed she slipped out while everyone else was eating the food she’d
brought. A hunch led me upstairs, and I found her slipping gold forks and spoons into her pockets.”
Johnathan and Merle
Merle Diplomacy
After half an hour, Johnathan was able to get from neighborhood woman that the woman crashed out the window, hit the fence, and then there
were two gunshots, a few seconds apart. When she jumped, she
had her arms covering her face, like to shield herself from the
glass.
Merle was able to pick up from the beggar children that a man with a goatee went up to the dying woman, and she handed
him a bundle of papers and folders, then whispered something
before she died. The man yanked a yellow pendant and necklace
off the woman’s neck, before running away.
Merle and Johnathan you guys can continue to check the neighborhood, just give me a diplomacy check. Thank!
"all that over some gold dining ware? Nothing else was missing? Did she have magic on her? That was quite a jump..."
All but John and Merle:
"I was about to get to the mother lode" LeBrix pulls out a small padded bag, then pulls from that a tiny ceramic egg, beautifully decorated with gems and gold.
“She also had this. It’s worth thousands, and we had it sitting out on display. I saw her, drew my pistol. She ran. I realized she was about to jump out the window.
I thought she was trying to kill herself, so I fired and hit her in the leg. Then she jumped. Flew straight through the glass. Now I’m thinking she’s about to escape, so I reload and shoot her in the back. That’s when she fell.
“That all happened within the consulate grounds. I’m within my rights to have taken these actions, though I wish I hadn’t had to.”
The consulate’s main secretary, Tia Jedeau, which you can ascertain from the plaque on her desk, watches the party as they come in, but gets back to work when LeBrix tosses a sidelong look at her.
LeBrix takes them down a hall and stops outside a storage room.
“We’re all professionals here,” LeBrix says. “It would help me if you can take the body and leave quickly.”
I wonder if that is the truth or if that "mother load" was just an after find..
[ooc]You chose Merle's actions perfectly[/b]
"Thank you you ruffians"Merle almost smiles, as he passes a few coppers off to the children.
"Let's keep looking around Johathan". "Somebody is bound to know something"
Diplomacy
Merle will also visit the Duchess every Sunday, and take her a sweet, and something to read to pass the boredom. She wasn't cruel or evil, just had her heart in the wrong place.
"Quite fortunate that such a delicate object did not break when she fell. Also very surprising that the fellow that looted her corpse managed to miss it. Speaking of which, we've been told that something was taken from the corpse, so if anything is found to be missing from the consulate, please let us know, so we can return it if we come across it."
"As for the body, we will be more than happy to take it off the premises. We will have to speak with this Braden ok course."
"Yes, regarding the body, we just want to make sure a thorough questioning is done before moving along. We wouldn't want to get the impression we were rushed out of here. But, silly me, i rather enjoy the occasional company of fine Danorans, especially when they work tirelessly to bring the fine nations of Danor and Risur together."
Johnathan smiles and thanks the woman on behalf of the RHC, then continues on. Although odd, Johnathan had an inexplicable magnetism and usually got his way--even though he didn't seem to try. He was genuinely interested in the lives and going-ons of the locals, and they seemed happy to have someone who listened. Whether he could actually pry useful information out of those conversations seemed to be mostly luck.
"I am sure this will be a simple case of breaking and entering. A few papers filled out, a cursory investigation, and then we move on with our lives and this embarrassing event is quickly forgotten by the populace at large."
ALL BUT JOHN AND MERLE:
Lebrix responds to Mithas, "Well this bag has got a lot of padding to be sure and luckily the fence did not make contact with it, for it surely would have broken anyway."
He then stops before responding to the second question, "After my second shot, I started to run down the stairs so I didn't get a glimpse of someone looting the body, but it all happened so quickly. The person probably did not have very much time to thoroughly loot the body either."
Answering Chretien, "Not a problem"
He then opens the door to the storage room. Inside the room, a bloodied white tablecloth covers Nilasa’s body. Braden sits in a chair beside it, stunned and grieving.
J+M
Someone was up in the window, but he looked like he was
completely black, except for something shiny, perhaps a gun. A
moment later he had vanished.
From a stock broker:
A man sprinted down the street then turned down alley, carrying
an armful of something
The glassiers:
When the Danorans took the woman’s body off the fence, her face
was covered in blood. People matching the description of LeBrix,
Consular duNadria, and a third unknown man got into a brief
shouting match as the body was being carried inside.
"How long would you say it was between the time you fired the second shot to the time you got outside? Odd that a pickpocket would appear so quickly. I'd wager most pickpockets like to case their marks. It isn't just something you do on a whim."
Can you give us the names and lead us to the other eye witness that were involved in the accident or who knew her well in this building?