Raj seems unfamiliar with some of the food, but eats some of the bread, butter, and potatoes. "Before we decide, I will go fetch Jim. He will not want to miss breakfast."
The monk taps on Jim's door to rouse him, and as the pair return to the main room asks, "Did you learn anything useful from your new friends?"
Ziebodug digs into breakfast, and finishes packing his gear for the day.
"Follow? Have we seen the man return yet? I say we go in and look around. We stiff have a key, right? So we aren't really breaking in..."
Jim comes down looking groggy and disoriented. "Is it tomorrow already?" He rubs his eyes and puts a pinch of what appears to be salt in some water. A few sips later and he seems a good deal more alert.
"Say, where's the holy man run off to?" Jim asks as he comes around. "Those fellows last night were nice enough, but they didn't really know much. Just rumors. Where would a 'skin saw cult' even hide? Do you think we can use some kind of scrying... thing? Maybe Elena could infiltrate them somehow? Aldern does seem kinda, well, you know." Jim says with a nod to the woman, suddenly filling his face with Jace's leftover breakfast to avoid having to explain himself.
"I don't know if I'm the best for infiltrating. Jace is out talking to the guard captain. I'd hate to leave him with no idea of where we are. Here's a plan since we are spinning our wheels a bit. First we try to find Jace and do things the boring way, and see what his captain says. If we can't get any information that way, then I say we try Zie 's suggestion. We do have a key...why not let ourselves in and look around?". She waits on the others' opinions, knowing something needed to be decided soon.
"Agreed." Zie waits for Jace to return.
As you do so, you easily find the man sitting at a desk with a nice little placard stating Detective Brosh. The looks busy with paperwork and from your position, you see that the folders he has spread out on his desk contain snippets of stuff you already have heard, such as Skinsaw, Sandpoint, and photos of various scenes of butchery.
As you get his attention, he looks up and he offers you a seat. "Heard you got into some trouble last night. Beat cops weren't none too happy with you flashing that badge." he mentions as his eyes move back to the various parchments and pictures crowding his desk. His voice seems to be bored.
"I'm afraid letting ourselves in is going to put us in bad graces with the town, and probably Aldern." Jim shrugs, sipping his water. "Well, this copy." He nibbles idly on the half-eaten sausage as his mind seems to wander.
Presently he stands and makes a noise of tipping his chair over behind him. He rights it with standard Jim Seeker grace, then addresses the barkeep. "Say, is there a temple of Pharasma around here?" Jim looks to the others. "Anyone feel like joining me in prayer?" A sarcastic but confident grin hangs on the self-proclaimed hero's face, confirming that he has other ideas entirely. He looks back to the barkeep. "Tell our companion where we've gone, should he return before us." Jim leaves 3 copper on the table by way of a tip and heads for the door.
Raj rises to his feet as well. "A prayer to the Patron of prophets is proper, yes."
"Tell you what, a few prayers couldn't hurt these days..." Zie will follow along.
Elena wasn't one for the religious hooha, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be left alone in this city, especially now that the guards knew who she was. She kicked herself for not going with Jace, but it was too late for that now. "Sure. I can toss a couple of copper in for a nice thought from Pharasma. Might hear a rumor or three along the way."
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Raj relays more information about the god Norgorber and adds that the Skinsaw are particularly violent followers that tend to die out after reaching a critical mass due to their psychopathic ways.
You all easily find a temple of Pharasma.
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Jace begins to explain everything he knows as best as he can. "You see Sandpoint recently has befell some bad times, between the goblin raids and now a mass murderer. My group was hired by the local Sheriff to help investigate the murders. During the goblin raids my companion Elena saved a man named Aldern Foxglove from here, though when we were investigating the murders all of the evidence pointed towards Aldern and his Manor. We spent some time investigating his Manor, which nearly killed us, only to find the ghost of his wife and Aldern down below the house half ghoul and half man. He couldn't fight off the infection completely and we had to lay him to rest unfortunately."
He shifts uncomfortably in the chair. "Here is where it gets weird. We came to Magnimar to follow up on a few leads to find you have trouble of your own, of which we were led to Aldern's town house here in the city, only to find it boarded up and occupied, by none other than Aldern and his wife.....we saw them killed in their mansion near Sandpoint, so it can't be possible."
Jim goes to the altar and gives an offering of two silvers. He pauses a moment and, although not religious in the least, he tries to offer up a prayer.
"...Uh... Pharasma bless us?"
His face screws up as he decides that he probably offends the gods more than anything. Then Jim Seeks out a priest. "Excuse me, hi. This is the church that's really put off by undeath, right? Well have I got a story for you."
The priest looks intrigued by Jim's offer. "Please. Regale me with your story." he says, waiting expectantly for Jim's story of slaying the undead, a particularly favorite pastime of the more militant Pharasmins.
After Jace finishes, Brosh looks up and thinks for a second. "Well, first, if this is weird for you, then you've seen very little of the world." he starts, his face showing no emotion.
"Second, I assume you came here for a reason. What is your purpose for being here instead of speaking to Aldern and his wife?" he asks, curious as to your purpose.
Elena follows Jim's lead and tosses a good and a couple silvers into the collection dish. "We've dealt with more undead in the last few weeks than you could shake a stick at. Undead you can cut with a sword are one thing, but those blasted haunts are something else all together. I don't suppose anyone here is a trained hauntbuster, are they?"
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"We were sent to help investigate this Skinsaw Cult that seems to plague your city. You see I think the two might be related. When we faced the undead Aldern he wore a similar mask and often referred to himself as the Skinsaw Man. Unless you have more that might help?" Jace asks skeptically as they seem to be the only ones that seem to care about a double running around.
"For that matter, anything you can give us to help against haunts or undead creatures would be, by us, most appreciated."
Brosh puts down his quill and sizes up Jace before speaking. "So, you have the issue of someone who "might" be someone else. Or the first Aldern was someone else. Or they are clones. Or they have traveled through time." he says, thinking of possible answers. "If it was me, I would investigate and actually speak to this new Aldern. Have you tried that?" he asks, curious about your answer.
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The group donates some money and seems to scowl as several acolytes disperse back into the halls of the temple, disappointed by the Travelling Circus. "Yeah, you can find our shop just outside. Get yourself some holy water and a few haunt bombs. The lack of the promised story is disappointing." the last acolyte left states as he rolls his eyes and wanders off to attend to other matters as it appears you are only interested in finding stuff to fight haunts.
Jim pauses with his mouth open as the acolyte walks away. "I was going to talk to him about the Skinsaw cult." he frowns.
"It's like this, fellows; That thing back in Sandpoint was making ghouls. This cult is somehow related. I wouldn't bank on haunts this time around though--this is devil worship stuff. I think these Pharasmans could help us investigate, before anybody starts making a ghoul army here. I'm just grasping for allies because I don't know what else to do. Does anyone else have a plan?"
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"He has left our sight each time just as we were going to speak with him. We can always try again." Jace says as he begins to get slightly irritated at things not going his way. Who knows what he expected, he can tell that Brosh cares but is simply overwhelmed with his own workload. Standing up he makes his way to leave. "Thanks for the pep talk. I'll try and get with this 'Aldern' once more. Anything we should know about this Skinsaw Cult running around the city? Anything that might help with our investigation?"
"It is an ongoing story. If you really want details, I am sure we can give you something of interest. Meanwhile, I like your suggestions. How can I go about getting these items?"
Zie will buy 5 holy waters and 3 haunt bombs if he can.
"Jim, I think if the last couple days have proved nothing else, it has shown we have zero plan. Who knows, Jace might be on to something right now. But if he fails to learn anything, we might just have to knock on Aldern's door and ask to be invited in for tea and confront him with everything. We just might have to fight our way out of that place after," Elena grumbles as she stirs her drink with her finger.
The temple seems to move on without regard for the Travelling Circus as Zie leaves and visits the shop. Various blades, hammers and armor adorn the shelves, all replete with Pharasmin iconography. When he moves to purchase the holy water and haunt siphons that he has picked up from a bin to the left of the counter, the woman taking payment smiles warmly at the dwarf. "Find everything okay?" she asks as she takes payment for his desired objects.
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"If you can provide evidence of the Skinsaw Cult's activities, then perhaps I can help you find more, but at this point, we are searching for a needle in a haystack and the leads are few and far between." he says. "I am looking over hundreds of reports on the attacks for the smallest clue. If you'd like to do that, then be my guest." he offers, though you think he is not really going to let you do that.
"I agree, Elena. This problem has no obvious way to a solution. Magnimar is too large a city to simply go looking for the Skinsaw cult."
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Jace tries to calm himself "It's not you, It has just been a long couple of days. Between getting blocked at each turn and murderers at every doorstep it just has my nerves on edge is all." He rubs his eyes. "I'll keep following through with Aldern and see what I can come up with. I mainly just wanted to touch base with you as we begin. Put a face to a name and all."
With that he shakes Brosh's hand and returns to the inn where the rest are at.
Back at the Inn. "You lot come up with anything useful? Brosh seems to agree. We should confront Aldern directly or even hire some of the local wizards to use scrying and divination magic for a cost. Though spying on innocent people's private moments should be a last resort."
"Yep, looks good."
Ziebodug thanks the lady, gathers his supplies, and heads back to the Inn to wait for Jace.
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"Me, I prefer the direct approach. Let's knock on the door and ask some questions. We all know something ain't right here."
"Yes, tell him the truth about who and what we fought in Sandpoint, and watch his reaction."
"Did you tell the guards we may need some backup if confronting him goes poorly? Last thing I want is them throwing me in cuffs again," Elena continues to grumble. "But, what the heck, I'm ready to confront him if the rest of you are. I say we tell him exactly what happened at the Misgivings and see his response."
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"They don't have any to spare as they are swamped in paperwork. Brosh explained that we should be looking for this Skinsaw Cult and it is like finding a needle in a haystack in this city." jace explainsto the rest, ready to confront Aldern directly.
"If he runs again let's find a local Diviner to scry him."
"I don't think the guards, or anyone else in this town, is going to be fond of us stirring up trouble at the Foxglove residence. I think we need to try to keep this quiet. Warn the guards and they'll arrest us before we make a move."
As Jim speaks, he shuffles vials from pockets to belt loops and such. He checks himself over and nods to himself idly.
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"I have a thought. You have told me of a boar hunt with Aldern in Sandpoint. Let's ask if we can go hunting with him, and talk to him when we're out of the city and away from his wife. Elena, you should make the offer."
Elena nods. "That's fine. We can ask him out for a hunt. If he agrees, we can get him away from the guards and see what he says. If we have to fight him, I'd rather be away from the city."
Resolved, the party leaves the inn and makes their way to the Foxglove residence, considerably more openly than the previous day's escapade.
Jim smiles as the group finds a direction of action. With a mixture of nervousness and adrenaline, he follows the others.
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The group decides on a plan and heads to bed. They make their way across the street early the next morning and find that the streets are fairly empty, much like every other early morning that they've seen thus far.
The trip across the cobbles is quite quick as they enter the courtyard and approach the house, knocking on the door. After a few tense and seemingly never-ending minutes, the door creaks open and you see the beautiful Iesha. "Ah!" she says in surprise, her beautiful face showing a cute raise of the eyebrows.
"Aldern! Your friends have returned!" she calls out as she steps back, inviting you into the house. Once you are inside, she closes the door behind you. You smell the roasting of meat from the kitchen as you enter, replete with plenty of spices and herbs.
After another minute, Aldern descends the stairs and warmly greets you. "Ah! My fellow men and women! What can I do for such wonderful people?" he asks as he grasps your hands in greeting.
"If you don't mind, we would like to talk to you about some recent events, and see if you can help us figure them out..."
Ziebodug looks to the others to see how far he should take this.
"First, though, I have heard that you are a skilled hunter. May we go out with you the next time you go out?"
"I'm actually a skilled tracker myself. I grew up in a rural environment and learned a fair bit about hunting and the natural world." Jim offers, reminding the world at large of his myriad talents. He slicks his hair back with one hand and straightens his jacket, smiling proudly at no one in particular.
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"I told the boys about the boar hunt we had in sandpoint! They got very excited and made me promise to ask you about the next time you planned on heading out for a chance to commune with the flora and the fauna?". Elena waited here for a response, knowing if he didn't plan on heading out soon, she'd have to cut to the point, right here, right now.
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Jace cuts to the chase. "I have little time for deception and games as my companions do 'Aldern' or if that is your real name. We know you are not Aldern or Iesha Foxglove. Cut the ruse and let's end this charade. We killed the real Aldern days ago in his Manor near Sandpoint. Or have you simply forgot about the Misgivings?"
Jace says as he draws his blade, ready to defend himself, but making no advancement on the man, just in case he was wrong. "The truth shall set you free"
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"Well, Aldern was overcome with some sort of artful ghoul fever and was too far gone to be saved...," Elena chimed in, but cut herself off realizing the explanation wasn't going to do any good here.
Aldern appears ready to answer about the hunt as Jace openly brandishes a weapon at the man. Iesha quickly hides behind her husband as he stoically draws his rapier. "Umm... I do not know what to say, however drawing a blade on a nobleman, especially one that has broken bread with your compatriots, is quite the crime." he says, keeping the point firmly pointed at Jace.
"Are you willing to stake your life on this claim?" he asks as his eyes dart back and forth amongst the group, though he stays wary of Jace at all times.