"We will, sir."
If you would follow me Sir. Isama leads the others into Kelesh Koffee and has a word with the head waiter to book a room passing him three gold and asking him to ensure that they are not disturbed.
Once settled in Isama hovers near. Can we get you something to drink before we start sir? And.. if you could put in a good word for us with our Sergeant after we're done that would be much appreciated sir. He did want us to take good care of you.
Once they arrive at their table Ophelia makes a quick show of looking all around to ensure that no-one is eaves dropping. Then she places a small notebook, pen & inkwell and a small pouch with sand on the table ready to transcribe the information.
"Of course!" Kristoph is delighted as you are led to a quite nice private room and a waiter brings in a selection of coffees.
"Very civilised. What would you like to know, Guard Zenj?"
'Don' nods in approval and then looks around, his mouth a flat line.
"Alright. Why don't we just go straight there. Do you need anything?"
I think just the basics to start sir, the nature of the bodies, where they were found, ideas on the culprit
"Fair. Let's go."
Ophelia nods and readies herself to take notes. The Sergeant's probable suspicion was justified - and airing it would probably not do anything good anyhow. Besides, Isama probably picked it up as well!
"Well. Looks like they were burned whilst still alive. There was no evidence of any fire where we found them, so we presume they were burned elsewhere and then moved. We paid a necromancer to reconstruct the bodies, and the faces didn't match anyone we had on our records."
"There was no evidence of brands or piercings that might indicate a religious reason."
"The location was one of those rooms attached to sewers - the ones where surges of water can be contained and bled off slowly... you know the ones. There was an access point for sewer workers to get in. We think they were just dropped in there."
"I made the decision to keep it quiet and leave an observer to catch the murderer if he tried again. A week later West Wall found a similar stash."
No records so figgers that they're not citizens Isama says thoughtfully Ophelia you got any other questions for The Senior Guard Sergeant
Don leads the duo through to the West Wall ward. He stops about a block from the wall itself, the imposing conjurestone wall looming high above them, the distance obvious from the fact the houses from here on have distinctive canvas roofs.
Don then turns and leads the group to a manhole with a hastily erected Alarm spell around it, red ribbon indicating to civilians to stay away. Sighing he whispers the password and lifts the ribbon.
Behind it is a round iron trapdoor, with a lever next to it. He bends down, inserts the lever into a notch and, grunting, levers it open with a clang.
A smell of decay, skunk water and sewage wafts up.
"After you, ladies." he gestures sardonically "Watch your step, the ladder is slippery."
"Thanks for the warning!"
Daria will cast light on her Glove, then start climbing down the ladder.
"Ayup." Diene raises an eyebrow, and waits for Daria to be all the way down before starting her descent.
Ophelia methodically jots down everything Kristoph says in precise, if somewhat small, handwriting. All the letters of the same sort are identical, barring a few imperfections of ink here and there, as if it was all typed. Repeatability was one of her strong suits.
"The discarded bodies, any indication if they were dumped from the street- or sewer-side?"
"Additionally - will you be able to provide the restored bodies? In identifying their origins there might come a time to ask around in the lower tiers of the city. Of course, there will be no need to disclose where the bodies were found."
"By chance, is there a forge or crematorium or similar site anywhere near Warlock's Walk?"
"I'd always assumed the street, given the tunnels in and out would be a tight fit for anyone but a halfling. On the other hands the bodies were dismembered enough that I suppose they could have been taken through that way..."
Kristoph looks hesitant for the first time "While we have sketches of all the bodies - obviously - the bodies themselves were simply going to rot. They were too damaged for anything but the most expensive of magics to gain any more useful information. Standard practice is to ask around for identification, wait a week, then pass them to our necromancer."
"Obviously we looked into things like that. There are a few places in Warlock's Walk that could have been used for the purpose. We've a number of high-profile citizens with homes whose central furnaces could do so. Far too many to simply barge in on the hope of finding clues. If that's the type of investigation you're planning, you can think again."
"The presence of central heating does complicate things, indeed. I am unfamiliar with such arrangements - I have little need - and did not realize that the bodies could be fitted there."
"Pardon - my assumption was that the necromancer had repaired the bodies. If they are in an unusable and unsuitable form, there will be no use for them."
"If the stash found by West Wall is of identical character, and not just any rarely supervised public building, it might be something we will have to look into."
Whoever did this knows a heckuva lot about how sewers work. Did the sewer workers notice anything odd? Are they the ones who found the bodies? Any evidence of any magic being used? Isama says turning possibilities over in her mind.
"The presence of central heating does complicate things, indeed. I am unfamiliar with such arrangements - I have little need - and did not realize that the bodies could be fitted there."
"Pardon - my assumption was that the necromancer had repaired the bodies. If they are in an unusable and unsuitable form, there will be no use for them."
"If the stash found by West Wall is of identical character, and not just any rarely supervised public building, it might be something we will have to look into."
"The spells in question restored the flesh to the corpse, but the jawbone was missing." he shrugs "Someone could pay for a full resurrection or reincarnation, I suppose."
Whoever did this knows a heckuva lot about how sewers work. Did the sewer workers notice anything odd? Are they the ones who found the bodies? Any evidence of any magic being used? Isama says turning possibilities over in her mind.
"Well. Most of the sewer workers in Warlock's Walk are constructs now. So no, they didn't 'notice' anything." he looks sideways at Ophelia. "An argument that will almost certainly be used by the workers to avoid replacement."
"Interesting. Is the missing jawbone incidental - or perhaps a trophy taken by the assailant? We will have to cross-reference."
The sideways glance provokes a small smile from Ophelia, her first facial expression of the meeting. "We come with varying degree of senses, with some at the lower end of the spectrum. But for that particular task our general lack of smell would be a blessing, I am told."
"Constructs have their uses. We had ours bring out the bodies, then we had them wash each other off. A real person would have been wasted on that task."
"Indeed. It is the craftsman's task to pick the right tool for any given work." Ophelia nodded and added Kristoph to the list of (real) people whom didn't seem to like constructs.
Problem being, I cast light on my own glove. As such, i'll combine Actions 1&2...Mia will drop down, not to catch it but to shine light on it and get a good look.
[yay, great landing -_- how much fall damage?]
Mia suddenly lets go of the ladder and falls down the remaining distance, shouting:
"Di, something's here and trying to get away!"
Isama straightens up and salutes Thank you for yer cooperation sir. We know your time's valuable an' appreciate your coming out here. Seems like since yer keeping the dumping ground under watch the murderers have moved on to dumping new bodies under West Wall. I don't think they'll come back to Warlock's Walk if you keep yer observer in place. If you could send a copy of the necromancer's findings and sketches as well as a list of the homes with central furnaces that'd be much appreciated.
"AWESOME!" Diene jumped down as well.
Ophelia follows Isama's lead and salutes as well.
"Of course, Isama - may I call you Isama? I'll have them sent directly to you at your guardpost." he salutes back "Good day."
Kristoph finishes his drink, stands, bows, and leaves. On the way out he flips the proprietor a gold piece.
"HALT IN THE NAME OF MY WEIGHT CLASS!"
"Aright, now, none of that, now I'd like you to calmly explain what you were doing in a crime scene and all that. I am not going to punch you into next week UNLESS you resist arrest even more. Which would be fun, admittedly. So, either way is fine, really."
Ophelia sprinkles some fine sand over her writings and fans some air over it with another sheet of paper so that it dries faster. She doesn't speak until Kristoph is well out of earshot.
"What an odd creature of flesh and bone." she remarks. "Should we try and survey the scene - or return to the post?"
Don't think there's any rush. The scene at Warlocks' Way is stone cold right about now. Now that we've got him out of our hair mebbe we can go see how the others are doin' with West Wall. Hey Ophelia. Hope you don't mind me askin' but... these constructs.... is it possible that they saw and can remember more than Krisotph thinks they can?
"Well, now you do! And, if wasting money were a crime, we'd be able to lock up the entire aristocracy." Diene nodded sagely.
"Now, here's a bit of a tip for you. If you wanna prove your innocence in a case, give aid to the people trying to solve it. You noticed anyone else coming and going from this area? Anybody suspicious? If you can't that's alright, but it would be awfully nice if you could."
Mia quickly finished wiping her face after the splash Diene made, momentarily blinding her with stuff she'd rather not think about any more closely than needed: "And if you could stop eating evidence, that would be sweet, too!"
It would seem Mia wanted to say more, but looking at the creature, the foot, and the bodies, she instead seems to fight back an urge to throw up and remains silent.
"Hmmm" Ophelia hums, the sound resonating trough her metal body. After a while she falls silent and nods. "I can not seem to find any 'minding' to your question. Spontaneous sentience is a documented event of life, if exceptionally rare. But I can't find any objections to simply checking for that either."
"...but... There is a chance the constructs are of newer make, then they may possess higher cognitive function. Especially if they happen to be of similar character to Viktor's ..." Ophelia adds after some deliberation.
Isama nods That man doesn't seem like the type to notice 'servants' overmuch. Mebbe we can see if his people missed something when dealing with them.
"Right. Well." Diene nods sagely for a moment before looking over her shoulder at Mia with an expression of pure "Now what do I do?".