The carriage ride from HQ isn't terribly pleasant; the early-summer heat and humidity are stifling, and an unusual lack of wind means the smoke from the factories is settling into a haze over the whole city.
On the plus side, your boss told you this could be interesting, and from the look of things, he wasn't wrong. Blood has pooled at the base of the Danoran embassy's fence. A window shattered on the upper floor, and the shards gleam in the garden below. The body of the young woman who was impaled on it is being taken in the embassy's doors by a pair of workers, while the embassy's security head is speaking with a local constable. Behind you, a crowd of possible witnesses is starting to disperse. What do you do?
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Retzack strides forward in his long duster and wide-brimmed hat. He blinks a few times, trying to chase the last of drowsiness away. This was a bit early for him, but, seeing the condition of the corpse, he agreed that the cause was just. -If- another kindred did this--and you can never rule them out--that would bode ill indeed.
"Good morning, gentlemen," he says to the security head and the local constable not caring if it was actually morning, it felt like morning to him. "In the future I'd appreciate it if you didn't move the body until we had a chance to look at it. Haha, no, don't worry about it now, given the visible location I understand the decision to move it.
So, what do we have here?" he opened with, but he was only half-listening to their answer as his eyes swept over the wrought iron fence where the body was found.
'Why would someone do this? To make a statement?'
Getting out of the carriage and stretching like a lithe cat, Tethys lets Retzack deal with the local "police", and instead surveys the crime scene intently.
Kappa walks out of the carriage, luminous yellow eyes peering out from between his robe and his hat. He looks at the pool of blood a moment. I wonder if I'll be given something stupid to do today. Then, he strolls over to the body. "One moment, if you please. I just need a look." Kappa's eyes move over the body. So...who was this? Anyone important? Anyone with enemies? Potential enemies? And what else...was there anything peculiar about the body? It had been impaled, yes. But something could have happened before that.
After the others exit the carriage, the camera zooms in as a solitary black boot hits the dusty ground. The camera pans up as the man emerges, revealing black pants covered by a black threadbare duster. Chrome glints as the man moves, one of two pistols nestled in leather holsters. The camera stops for a moment to show the man's six-pointed badge, "RHC - Hoffa."
He squints up at the window, face dominated by a mustache.
After a moment, the man kneels on one knee, removes a black bowler hat, and uses a finger to trace a six-pointed star over his heart.
I vow to discover the truth behind this woman's death.
He stands and moves to join Retzack.
Adir surveys the situation grimly. After a moment, he approaches the head of security and introduces himself. "Adir Bloodmoon of the Royal High Constabulary. May I, and my comrades, enter the embassy grounds to investigate?"
Retzack
From a cursory glance, a few things draw your attention. You were told she leapt from the broken window and fell on the fence, but it's at least forty feet from one to the other. The blood on the ground has formed four distinct pools, but it looks like the victim would only have suffered two wounds from the fence's iron points. There's a partial footprint visible in one of the blood pools, and a few more smudges leading away from the embassy.
Black Kappa
It's a good forty feet from the gate to the embassy entrance. By the time you approach the door, the body's been taken inside. You move to follow, but as you approach the door, a guard moves to stand in front of it. "I'm afraid I can't let you in without the chief's approval. Sorry, uh..." He studies you for a moment, and startles when he tries to get a closer look at your face. "Sir.". What do you do?
Tethys
You sense a faint resonance through your conduit, coming from an alleyway nearby. Someone or something used water magic there, and recently. What do you do?
Retzack and Adir
"Julian LeBrix, security chief." He offers a polite nod of the head. "And you're welcome to look around; if you wish to enter the embassy, I must ask that you allow one of us to escort you. But, I can probably save you some time. The young lady was named Nilasa Hume; she was attempting to rob the embassy. When I interrupted her, she ran towards the the window. I fired at her leg, hoping to keep her from hurting herself, but she still leaped through, and ended up on the fence." He shakes his head sadly. "Nasty end. I'd hoped not to see anything like that again."
What do you do?
Burke
In the pursuit of truth, dishonesty has no place. You are sworn to absolute honesty until your task is complete.
As your attention returns outward, you hear the last part of the chief's statements, and know he's not telling the truth - he didn't do what he's saying. . What do you do?
Kappa grins behind the cover of his robes. "I understand. You have your job to do. It'll just take a little more work for me to do mine."
As he walks away, his attention turns to the embassy itself as he goes probing around the outside looking for security vulnerabilities. Chief's approval, huh? Don't worry. Chief Kappa's on the job.
Honestly, Kappa didn't remember his rank right now, but if anyone questioned him he was using that excuse and leveraging his mysterious nature for all it was worth. In the meantime, he needed a good place to break in so he could look at the corpse.
And he could look to see how anyone else might have gotten in while he did that, he supposed.
Bullshi.t. Burke Hoffa of the RHC. I know a liar when I see one. It's all over your face, LeBrix. Tell the truth here or back at the station. Your choice.
I Am the Law
When you give an NPC an order based on your divine authority, roll+Cha. On a 7+, they choose one:
- Do what you say
- Back away cautiously, then flee
- Attack you
On a 10+, you also take +1 forward against them.
On a miss, they do as they please and you take -1 forward against them.
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Adir looks at Julian quizzically. "What do you mean 'again'? How do you know her name? What was she trying to steal?"
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Retzack firmly shakes the hands of the security head and the local constable, giving them Reassuring Smile #3, increasing their Trust by 27% and allowing him an Authoritative Role with a 63% assiduity. "Yes, yes, of course. I'm just going to take a look around, strictly standard, you know? I'm sure you have done a good, professional, and thorough job. I just need some things to write in the report, y'know? But don't go anywhere, I may have some more questions. Strictly routine, of course."
He gives them a Knowing Grin #4 and heads over to the scene of blood and death. He frowns that the body is no longer there...but the truth has been left behind anyway.
Retzack bends down. Down. Down. He leans close, very close to the ground where the spoor of death still remains, the thirsty ground not able to hide all traces. His careful fingers walk over the crimson pool...and he brings them to his mouth.
The blood knows.
'Mmmmmm. B pos. Haven't had that in awhile. She's eaten pasta recently, and was prone to heart disease. And she likes to eat apples and wear L'Air du Temps...but not today.'
While the others are chatting with the embassy personnel, Tethys quietly slips around the side of the building into the alley, and opens up her senses to search around for the source of the resonance :
But can't find anything interesting/useful.
Retzack
Mmm... There's so much you can learn about a person this way. Like what inflicted wounds. The two pools right under the fence - the iron in the blood combined with the iron of the fence, but a little hint of steel as well. One other pool has a taste of steel also - if you had to guess, she was shot twice. The last one...smells off, like burnt grease and rotting flesh. If you had to guess, some kind of necromantic magic, but nothing you've encountered (at least in this lifetime...).
As for what's about to happen: Burke says LeBrix is lying, and the wounds don't quite match what he just told you. Someone's covering up something.
What do you do?
Black Kappa
As you circle the exterior of the building, you note three things:
First, the excitement out front means noone is paying attention to the side you're on.
Second, there's an open window on the ground floor; it opens onto a hallway with several doors, and what looks like a lobby at the end of it.
Third, there's some kind of vent leading up from the basement. It'd be tight, but you could probably squeeze your way through it.
Tethys
In the alleyway, you'd recognize evidence of this anywhere - a street fight took place recently. One involving ice magic. Scratches on a wall from blades, jumbled footprints, and a few lingering glimmers of frost, in bursts here and there.
you spot several spatters of some dark liquid on the ground. When you touch it, it becomes clear that it's blood, mixed with some other dark liquid you can't identify; a little of the other liquid seeps into your emanation point, and a shiver runs through you as you can feel a trace of dark magic, like grease on your conduit.
Burke and Adir
LeBrix looks around worriedly, then takes a step back, so that he's inside the embassy grounds. He meets Burke's gaze, and replies with slightly-uncertain bravado, "This is Danoran sovereign territory; I was cooperating with you as a matter of professional courtesy. I'm afraid you, sir, are no longer welcome on our grounds." He turns to Adir, and says "If you'll follow me, I'll be happy to answer your questions." As he walks off, Burke sees glances pass between the guards stationed outside; LeBrix did not just improve his standing in their eyes.
Adir
Assuming you follow LeBrix, he leads you into the embassy's main lobby; as he does, he explains further. "She's been here several times before, as a guest of one of my men; seemed like a nice enough girl. I'm assuming now that her relationship with him was an excuse to case the place. She was trying to make off with this," he gestures at a filigree-and-gemstone egg, currently sitting on a table with an embassy guard standing next to it. " from a display case on the top floor. I can show you the body, or take you upstairs to see the scene, as you like."
Kappa eyes up the vent. Should he tell anyone he's doing this...?
Naaaaah.
Kappa squeezes into the vent, and sees what he can find and where he can go.
Burke calls out as LeBrix is fleeing. The innocent don't run LeBrix. I look forward to the next time we meet.
As the coward Julian Lebrix leaves, Burke heads over to the guards. Did any of you see anything of note?
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Retzack nods at LeBrix, standing next to Adir there as though he's always been there.
"Mmm, yes, bad business that, using a good, upstanding guard as a rube just to get intelligence for a mission of nefarious intent.
Ah, who was the young man who the vile, departed thief used so brazenly? And would we be able to speak to him. Oh, now I understand that this may be a bit unorthodox, but if we can get this over with quickly, there's no need to go back to the High Judge for warrants and paperwork and those take soooo long. I'm sure you understand."
"Um, but of course, if that is not possible, if we could just see the body, that will at least allow us to check off that particular box."
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Adir gives Burke a reassuring nod to say 'I hear you. I have this.' He follows LeBrix, listening. "I see. And what alerted you to the attempted theft?" Adir closes his eyes briefly, but otherwise does not react to Retzack's appearance.
"Yes, the body first, please, then upstairs. What I'm about to do might seem strange, but it will help us with the investigation." Adir shifts into a large, white wolf. He smells around the egg's location before heading to the body.
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• 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.
Black Kappa
As you squirm into the vent, you start to hear voices coming from somewhere inside the building. The vent branches a few times, seemingly running to multiple places inside; following the voices, you arrive at a grate overlooking a small room. There's a body laid out on a table, and you see a man in clergy robes leaning over her; he intones a brief prayer, then hurriedly moves towards the door. There are two other people still in the room. What do you do?
Burke
The pair of guards exchange a look. One of them replies, "Well....I mean.... Not really. Things seemed... Normal, right up until the gunshots. Then, uh, she jumped out the window...Landed on the, um, fence. A guy ran up, took something from...her, then ran off." He doesn't seem like he's lying, but his speech definitely seems off. The other guard shifts uncomfortably.
Adir and Retzack
LeBrix answers Retzack first, startled by his sudden appearance. "His name is Braden; I sent him home after speaking with him. He's pretty shaken up, he was quite smitten with her." He turns to Adir. "And it was pure chance; I was headed upstairs to speak with the consular when I found her. "
Smells - there's only one scent on the metal-and-stone, and it smells like the two legs who's talking to you. He smells afraid.
He continues, managing to not look too surprised by your transformation, "Of course. Right this way", and leads you out of the lobby.
Burke sighs. You need to lay off the pepper son. What did this guy look like? What way did he run? How big was the item he took?
Adir growls when he smells LeBrix' fear, the predatory instinct of the wolf exerting itself. The female was not near here, and why would prey flee up, instead of out? He lies just as two-legs Burke suspected.
As he follows LeBrix upstairs, Adir reflects on the the two-legs' minimal reaction to the shift. Most are affected more by the shimmering and the contorting. While some shifts, like the wolf, are ones that Adir has used often and are like putting on an old, comfortable shirt, ones that he is less practiced with are exceedingly painful.
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Tethys comes back from around the alley, passing the embassy guards saying "I'm with the RHC", flashing them a badge if she has one, and goes on inside.
After looking at the egg for a few moments, she sees Adir and Retzack leaving the lobby with an embassy person, and runs to catch up.
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Retzack nods, knowingly and gratefully, increasing LeBrix's feeling that Retzack "Cares about the same things I do" by 27%.
"Ah, yes, of course. Poor lad, probably his first love too. And to find she's a traitor and a thief and never really loved him as a person, simply as an object to use and then discard as soon as her mission was completed, all at the same time, makes it extra hard.
If you could just tell us where the poor lad is after our tour is completed, we'll debrief him more and see about counseling the poor lad. Of course we'll have to ask him a few questions to make sure he didn't know anything about the girl's theft, and isn't also, himself, an enemy agent, but that's just procedural and I'm sure he'll check out.
Ah, yes, after you sir. Come along, Adir."
Retzack dutifully follows along, nodding as an unquestioning sycophant at every word LeBrix says.
Adir is pretty sure that Retzack smells of deceit...and thirst.
Kappa starts by seeing what can be learned from the vent, examining the grate to see how it's secured, scrutinising the actions and general behaviour of the people in the room beyond, and trying to see if he could tell just what wasn't 'right'.
Black Kappa
You study the room below. The robed figure leaves; both the guards have the malice-touched appearance that marks many Danorans The grate is held up by four screws; you could work them out slowly, but two are rusted and you could probably knock it loose with one good Deluge.
As you're considering options, your gaze sweeps over the dead woman's face. She doesn't move or speak, but you still hear and see her say something.
Before you have a chance to react, the door opens again; Retzack and Tethys enter, accompanied by a wolf and LeBrix.
What do you do?
Burke
"What? Oh...Yeah. He, uh, foreigner of some kind. Fair skin, mmmm, beard, glasses? Yeah, glasses. Grabbed a bag, uh, maybe this big?" he holds his hands out; they're maybe a foot apart. "Ran off that...hm... way." He points around the side of the building that Tethys just returned from.
The other guard speaks up. "You've got him wrong, sir. I know what it looks like, but Crell's not... He's not one of those. Never a hint of it before today. " She shifts, looking - maybe embarrassed? She's not lying.
What do you do?
Tethys
The egg is a fake. A well made fake, but the garnet representing Jiese, plane of fire, has the wrong number of facets; a genuine Gefarbe piece would have 12.
Adir, Retzack, and Tethys
He leads you downstairs, along a fairly circuitous route, and then to a door. (Adir, you draw a few double takes from people you pass on the way.) It's only as you proceed down the last hallway that Adir picks up the scent of recently-deceased two-legs. LeBrix opens the door and enters, waving for you to follow. "Here's the body; once you're done, let us know where you'd like us to deliver it once we've completed our own investigation. " He steps out of your way, standing next to one of the two guards in the room.
The body lies on a table. Nilasa was a young half-eladrin, from her appearance; her body and clothing are marked with glass shards, bloodstains, and punctures.
What do you do?
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Retzack nods obligingly. "Good! Many, many thanks. And the body is so well preserved! Gratitude for not doing your own autopsy on it, so many others try to pry open the corpse and just make a mess of things. You have truly shown your aptitude and professionalism by leaving it in state.
Ah, what I must now do is not for the feint of heart. Verifying the facts to a depth that will satisfy the bureaucracy is not a pretty thing, but it must needs be done.
Ah, you, ah, you may wish to leave the room. Of course you may stay if you wish, but I have seen strong men lose lunch at such a site that a truly -accurate- examination must needs take. But you are a man of no small competency so I leave it to your wills."
That said Retzack begins stripping the body in the matter-of-fact way that only one with an interest in physiology could. Once the body is naked he probes each hole and puncture, getting his fingers wet with blood...and then tasting them.
If asked about this odd habit, he smiles. "I was born with perfect taste. I can taste glass and bullets, so I must needs merely detect the grey sand that gunpowder tastes like, or the light, clean, autumn mist that glass tastes like, and I can tell how a puncture came to be." The smile runs a way from his face. "I told you this would be...unsettling."
That done, he returns to work, looking for the two bullet holes...or any other incongruities the body has to tell.
Adir ignores the startled looks and walks calmly, acting like nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
Burke
"What? Oh...Yeah. He, uh, foreigner of some kind. Fair skin, mmmm, beard, glasses? Yeah, glasses. Grabbed a bag, uh, maybe this big?" he holds his hands out; they're maybe a foot apart. "Ran off that...hm... way." He points around the side of the building that Tethys just returned from.
The other guard speaks up. "You've got him wrong, sir. I know what it looks like, but Crell's not... He's not one of those. Never a hint of it before today. " She shifts, looking - maybe embarrassed? She's not lying.
What do you do?
Thank you Crell. How long ago was this? Also, did you actually see the deceased jump from the window. That is quite a jump.
As Crell's two brain cells attempt to connect, Burke turns to the other guard.
I am Burke. I didn't catch your name. Would you mind if we spoke privately for a moment?
Burke
"What? Oh...Yeah. He, uh, foreigner of some kind. Fair skin, mmmm, beard, glasses? Yeah, glasses. Grabbed a bag, uh, maybe this big?" he holds his hands out; they're maybe a foot apart. "Ran off that...hm... way." He points around the side of the building that Tethys just returned from.
The other guard speaks up. "You've got him wrong, sir. I know what it looks like, but Crell's not... He's not one of those. Never a hint of it before today. " She shifts, looking - maybe embarrassed? She's not lying.
What do you do?
Thank you Crell. How long ago was this? Also, did you actually see the deceased jump from the window? That is quite a jump.
As Crell's two brain cells attempt to connect, Burke turns to the other guard.
I am Burke. I didn't catch your name. Would you mind if we spoke privately for a moment?
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...well, one the one hand, the others were looking over the body. He could probably entrust that to them.
On the other hand, he'd just been told to smash all the windows of the embassy. Which...alright, it seemed like something he would be told to do, but a voice from a dead body didn't seem to be the style of his patron.
He wasn't about to argue though. Fey don't always stick to their own rules, after all, and even if it wasn't them he still didn't want to get on the bad side of whoever it actually was by ignoring them.
Kappa ceases his watch on the body as Retzack gets to work, and starts working through the vents to other places in the embassy. He had another job to do.
Black Kappa
Burke
Crell replies, "Maybe half....an hour ago? And yeah, that was weird. Looked for a, um, moment like she was just running, hm, on air before she just...fell."
When you speak to the other guard, she gets a worried look. "Bree, sir. I'm on duty right now, and really shouldn't leave my post. I...guess we could step over there for a moment?" She points at a corner of the courtyard, close to both the embassy and the street, but with noone immediately nearby.
Adir
The scent was from the body; it was apparently brought here via a different path from the one you took.
Retzack
As you strip the body, two items of interest draw your eye: a parole slip, from the Parity Lake police, and a small empty bottle, each in a pocket of her dress.
The wounds mostly match what you'd expect. Misty glass flavors, with an interesting palette of other flavors (the window was, apparently, stained glass). Bitter iron from the fence post wounds. Sharp steel and sand in her leg and back (though the angle on these is wrong - if she were standing, the shots would've come from below. Or if she were lying down, from above and behind her.) Missing, at first, is the magic you felt in the blood outside; it takes you a minute to realize there was another wound, on her face, and the wound and dark magic were both covered up with clerical magic.
If you had to guess, you'd say the wound on her face came first, then the glass, then the fence, then the gunshots.
Upon seeing the woman, Adir growls menacingly, directing his gaze at LeBrix. After a moment, he attempts to track how she was brought in.
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She knows the egg is fake because in the past, when she was doing illegal jobs-for-hire, she was tentatively hired to steal a Gefarbe egg, and had a chance to study it because it was being publicly displayed. Unfortunately her "client" got arrested for other things before she could steal it, and if she didn't get paid, the job didn't get done.
Aware of the guards in the room, she speaks quietly to Adir and Retzack, saying "Um, guys, I've discovered some things about this situation that are...odd. Perhaps we could go back out front to re-group with Burke and compare notes? Hey, has anyone seen Kappa lately?"
Burke moves to where the guard indicates, and notes her nervousness.
It's ok, I only wanted to ask you about Crell's condition. It is highly suspect that he change so dramatically on the day of a murder. You say he has never been like this before? Have you known him to use any drugs? Has anyone else been acting oddly?
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Retzack covertly pockets the two items and nods at Tethys, adding, quietly, "Yes. I too have some items of import to discuss. And I doubt we can learn anything else here without changing tact. As far as Kappa, he has his own ways, and travels paths we can not follow. You don't get to be that old without learning a few tricks, you know."
At length Retzack turns on LeBrix. "Ah! Splendid, splendid! You have been so very helpful, I'll see to it that this case is put away with all speed. Oh, ah, yes, I'll just need a location so I can have a quick word with the young Braden, poor young lad.
And just deliver the corpse to the Constabulary morgue. I doubt we'll need it for anything else, but regulations must needs have any victim of violence in cold storage for at least three days, or until the case is solved, whichever comes first.
I guess I can show myself out, unless you care to walk with me."
Retzack moves toward the exit, eager to regroup
Black Kappa
This vent system doesn't seem to extend to the top floor, but does reach most of the basement and other three floors. Most of the rooms on the lower two floors are occupied. There's one interior room on the third floor where the vent is blocked. There's also a hallway on the second floor that runs along the front of the building; that's a lot of windows, and at least right now, no one seems to be in it. What do you do?
Burke
"No... He's never shown any sign that I've seen. There were two others, I heard LeBrix say, two other guards this morning that he had to send home; also one of the secretaries. If we weren't short from that, I think Crell would be gone, too."
Adir
As you leave the room, LeBrix mutters to his guards, "Stay with these two," and follows behind you. You follow the scent, and it leads along a much shorter path back to the embassy's main lobby. What do you do?
Tethys and Retzack
LeBrix dashes out the door after Adir. In response to your query, the other guards tell you Braden has a space in the Bosum Strand, and is known to frequent the Thinking Man's Tavern. They also say they'll pass your instructions on.
When you two leave, the guards follow you back to the lobby, one pausing to lock the door behind you. What do you do?
With a shimmer, Adir shifts back his normal form as he steps into the main lobby again. He looks around him, then back down the hall he just came through, trying to deduce a reason that he and his comrades were taken along a more circuitous route.
Unless Retzack objects, Tethys will walk with him back to the lobby (on the way to Burke outside), where they will find Adir and LeBrix standing.
"Adir, shall we meet up with Burke to discuss this case?"
As the party (sans Kappa) comes back together Burke shares what he has learned. The important bits:
- Guards appear to have been poisoned, showing acute signs of chronic Fey Pepper addiction. Lebrix sent two guards and a secretary home.
- Victim appeared to run across the air when exiting the window, ran for a distance before falling straight down onto the fence. Likely magic ... hers or someone else's?
- A questionable witness reports that a fair skinned foreigner with beard and glasses approached the body, stole a small bag and ran in [correct direction] about an hour ago
Adir, think you could track down our bearded friend?
He's just so curious about what the room with the blocked vent could be hiding...there has to be SOMETHING in there!
But, on the other hand? He did have a lot of windows to break.
Kappa works away at the most ideally positioned vent cover in the second floor hallway, first.
With the cover out of the way, Kappa starts hurling knives at the windows from his position in the vents.
Tethys shares what she knows with the others :
- There was a magical battle in the alleyway adjacent to the embassy recently. Dark magic was involved.
- The egg is a fake!
- Braden (the guy who was interested in the dead girl) has a space in the Bosum Strand, and is known to frequent the Thinking Man's Tavern