GiantSlaying with DM ERK

Game Master evar0

Rorik dusts himself off, then follows Rormar and Malthu downstairs.

For sake of simplicity you all arrive downstairs one after another. You see Ragha down there consoleing a visible upset Cham, Kurst looking rather stoic and stonefaced and several members of the militia are walking either out the door or into the back of the build towards where you all know some rooms are.
Cham sees you "Oh thank the gods! There is only one dead person in my inn. Ohh no. He is gone. How could this happen. Ohhh..." she falls into silence after that.

"I need you all to listen. I need some help... I uh. O..okay. As you just heard from Cham there was a death here last night. My brother Rodrick was found dead this morning. Apparently he committed suicide, but i just can't believe that. There must be something else going on. There has to be. Unfortunately the man who would normally investigate this case is well the victim. He would be able to solve this so easily, but me I've never been as good at anything as him. But now i have to find a way. That's where you five," glancing at Toorg
"six?, come in. I simply can’t handle the investigation and tend to my family duties at the same time. I may be a patrol captain, but right now, I feel my responsibilities as a brother outweigh my other duties. Still, I can’t just let this lie. I’m afraid I’ve exhausted all my other options—the members of Trunau’s militia are competent defenders during siege times, but they’re not sleuths by any means. I need your help. Will you investigate my brother’s death? I beseech you. Help me. Help Trunau, this is truly one of her darkest hours."

"I guess I'm not going to be leaving Trunau anytime soon. I'll sign on for helping. Where is the body?" Rormar says toward Kurst.

Oh, that came out poorly, should probably patch that up a bit....

"And I am dreadfully sorry for your loss, but you understand that the sooner we get to see the scene and the body the better the chances of getting to the bottom of this. Is there any info you can give us? Where exactly did it happen?" he says as gesturing around the Ramblehouse.

"It's impossible that Rodrick killed himself. He was a warrior at the prime of his life, not some weakling hiding in the shadow of others. And if whoever did this is going after our warriors, they may be enemies to all of Trunau." Malthu clenches his fists, clearly angered by Rodrick's sudden death.

He looks up again at Kurst. "Have you sealed the gates? We don't want the killer escaping." While it's a question, he treats the request almost as a demand, despite the fact that he lacks any official authority to do so.

"Of course if you think that will help they body is being brought to the Sanctuary as we speak. I would love to seal the gates as well, but everyone else is convinced that it was suicide. My father was here briefly saw the wounds and concluded the same. Not to say he isnt distraught. Its another loss for our family. Why it was so easy for him to believe it ties into something of a family secret. Cham may we use your room to discuss a few matters."

she replies "I, I, yes just uh Roosevelt. When you are all done here could you do that thing you do to finish clenaing the mess left behind in Rodrick's room."

Rodrick leads you into Cham's room.

"So, there are a few matter that might be of interest to you. The first, which probably is not directly involved with his potential murder, Rodrick was engaged to the half-orc Bruinya Kelver, a relationship our father and many other Trunauans did and would not agree with respectively. I only recently found out about their relationship. They hid it well. She can tell you about Rodrick's behavior for the past few days perhaps she noticed something i did not or he confided in her. The second is Omast Frum, he won't take this well, but he is a long time friend and a frequent patrol partner of Rodricks. Talk to him about what Rodrick has been working on. The last thing i can think of is to search the crime scene. As I already told you the best investigator in Trunau is uh... dead. I wish I could feel confident that Rodr- my men found everything. They all saw his slit wrists and concluded suicide by hopeknife. thank you again. Any questions? Please ask now. You can either find me at the longhouse or leave a message there for me."

"Do you have the knife? Those things are a personal affair, right? Is it his own?" Ragha still stood next to Cham with a hand on her shoulder but her eyes were fixed on Kurst. They'd need to figure out what was going on. For Rodrick, for Kurst, for Cham and now also for Bruinya and Omast.

fml. I can English. Rodrick is engaged to Brinya not Bruinya. I swear I can type.

"Yes of course here is the hopeknife. These are indeed a personal affair. Any Trunauan can identify their knife with ease. We know everything that has happened to it. Unfortunately I cannot say for sure that this is my brother's. I've seen his hopeknife many times but distinguishing it from any other is tricky. It's also not uncommon for lovers to exchange knives. This may actually be Brinya's." he hands the hopeknife to Ragha.

"We will ask her when we speak to her. Do you know where it is we can actually find Brunya?" Ragha is very careful with the blade handed to her. It is both the murder weapon and mostly likely a personal affair so it needed to be handled with care.

"the boarding house Brinya stays in is probably the best bet. It's due west of the commons. I might wait a bit if I were you, I am sure she is not taking the news well. I don't think anyone in Trunau will. "

You all know of which one he speaks. If you don't Rormar cetainly does as a citizan of Trunau for the past 20 years.

"Okay, guys, unless you have any objections, maybe we split up? We'll hopefully get this taken care of sooner, and we can pool our info when we meet again, in a few hours. Ragha, you seem to have taken an interest in the hopeknife, and based on your interactions with Cham, you're probably the best suited to talk to Brinya. I'd probably prefer to look at the crime scene.

Rormar quickly turn to address the other three (4?), with a look of determination in his eyes. "Any takers for the Omast lead?"

Malthu seems uncomfortable with Rormar's proposal. "I get what you're saying, Rormar, but none of us should be traveling alone. The killer could strike again, and it may be no accident that the lead investigator was the first to die. Two groups of three, I say. I can go with Ragha to keep her safe."

Malthu has another thing he's concerned about; whether there were important clues right under their nose. "What about you, Kurst? Last I saw, you and Rodrick were together at the party, and you were definitely hiding some news from us. So what happened that night? And what's the big secret you didn't want us to know?" Malthu's tone sounds accusatory, though from his perspective it is merely blunt and direct.

" the only things I was hiding are Brinya as I mentioned was a point of contention in the family. My father is among those who doesn't trust anyone with orc blood. And Rormar already knows about the graffiti that has been found around town. It's probably just teenagers but the milita is looking into it quietly. We don't alarms raised over a teenage prank."

"I guess I'll go check out his room, seeing as I've gotta go clean it up. Anyone wanna come with me and the tree? He's a good listener and I can talk for hours, so whatever you want to do-we've got you covered."

"I'll come along. Also, speaking of him, should we address him? I'm not entirely sure if he's really a person or not, and we've heard nary a peep out of him, but you two seem to be pretty close."

"Honestly? He just doesn't make much noise at all. Mostly grunts and the occasional burp. If he doesn't like you, he'll let you know. Repeatedly. With his fists. But besides that he's pretty chill."

"I thank you all, Cham might also have some information after she calms down. When you see Brinya tell her im so sorry. My father has forbid me from seeing that quote "Orc temptress". Thank you, please come to me if you think i can help in any way. I must go attend to my brothers affairs and plan his... ehhh.. F-funeral. " As Kurst finishes his statement you finally see a bit of sadness. Its as if seething rage at how easy the townspeople accepted the suicide had kept him going up until now. Now that you are on the case the emotions of losing his brother hit him. He quickly departs.

Alrighty to sum up you guys have 3 leads: The Ramblehouse(Rodrick's room and Cham), Brinya, and Omast. Good luck. Posts might be a bit more scare from me over the holiday weekend. Enjoy the long weekend my fellow Americans.

"Thank you for your assistance, Kurst. Okay now, I suppose Roosevelt and I will head back to Rodrick's room, good luck on finding some information Ragha and Malthu, shall we meet back here after you are done? That leaves Rurik left, if you'd like to join us, we'll be in the back."

Addressing Roosevelt directly "I think I'll stay away from the tree then, he makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, I'll leave him to you.

Malthu/Ragha, this should be a good group split up right? I've got the best perception in the group, I think, so probably better for searching a room, you think?

"Fine with me. I know he can freak some people out, I guess. Shall we go to his room?"

"Got it, we'll do the talkin', you do the searchin', and meet up back here," agrees Malthu.

Let's go to Brinya first.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Malthu and Ragha on your way over to the boarding house roll a diplomacy check to see if you gather any rumors. Townsfolk know you were at the Ramblehouse last night and most know what occurred. Several people come up to and ask about the evening. You find the boarding house that you know Brinya stays at.

Roosevelt, Rormar, Rurik Cham cam point you to the room Rodrick stayed in. You find the room pretty much as the milita would have left it. The bed is there covered in blood. It's actually a fairly sparse and cheap room. It seems Cham spoiled you last night with the best room in the house. Besides the bed there is a small reading desk. One window is cracked open a bit

Malthu was definitely not the right guy to be chatting folks up, but maybe he could help Ragha somehow.

Diplomacy (aid another ): 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Wow, I'd have expected that Rodrick would have gotten the best room in the house" Rormar says with confusion. "Ah, and an open window over there, seems suspicious.

"I think I'll go and check the reading desk first though, rather than disturb anything else."

Rormar slides over to the reading desk and checks it for any documents or trinkets and checks for any drawers on it I'm not sure if there's drawers that are plainly visible, if not, I'm checking for some hidden ones

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

And if you want a separate check for both of those
perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Rormar finds nothing in the desk. It appears to him that Rodrick didn't even touch it. The drawers were plainly visible and Rormar does not find any hidden ones. It appears to just be a standard desk

"Ah, looks like nothing on, or in, the desk, what do you guys want to do about the bed?"

Ragha took her time to talk to the people in the streets. With a little luck it would turn up something useful.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
Aid from Malthu not yet included

"Okay, so I'm no expert on you humans. But that seems like an awful lot of blood, even if he did slit his wrists."

Roosevelt detects magic on the bed, just to be 100% sure it's not a magic bed of bloodletting.

Gonna split up you guys into spoilers the Ragha Malthu group and the Rormar, Rossevelt, Rurik group on a side note too many R names.

should we be spoilering it up as well?

"To be fair, he did die from it, Roosevelt. This isn't small occurrence, after all. But let's see, Rurik, you're trained as a cleric, correct? You probably have some experience with healing, which might help with knowing wounds? Can you gather any info from the blood splatters?" Rormar then walks over to the window and checks it for any unusual scuffs or markings that might indicate forced entry.

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10 Would the forums seriously stop hating on me here...

"Roosevelt, you want to help me check to see if there's anything suspicious over here? The supposed murderer might have come in or left through the window."

Rormar takes a look out through the window for any foliage or something else soft that might have been disturbed when someone came in or out.

time to change dice :p

There is nothing unusual about the window and nothing seems disturbed by a person climbing in or out. It seems the window was left open to let some cool summer night air in.

Not to mention the dead guy's name is Rodrick - the list of R-names marches on!

"Maybe we can talk to Sara Morninghawk about the hope knife after we meet up with the others again. She might know if it's Rodrick's or not."

As they reach Brinya's, the sad and angry sounds coming from the door don't seem like the sounds of a murderer. Still, there was a murder to be solved, and talking to Brinya might help bring the killer to justice. He knocks on the door. "It's Ragha and Malthu. We're here to talk about Rodrick." Malthu hoped that Brinya would be more willing to talk to two half-orcs than to others in town.

From inside the room you hear "You can enter." you are reeted by Bryina who is clearly not in a good mood. " What do you two want. I appreciate the visit, but as I'm sure you know Rodrick was found dead this morning and I'm currently working through some things, well emotions."

"We are very sorry for your loss." Ragha tried her best to look solemn and sound compassionate, "We are here on behalf of his brother. He asked us to conduct the investigation into Rodrick's death while he tends to he duty as a brother. As such we have some questions for you, even though we know this must be very hard for you. We need information to figure out what happened."

Ragha left a short break there so her words had some time to sink in, "Have you noticed anything strange about Rodrick recently? A change in his behaviour?"

"Investigate what I thought it was a suicide, that's what everyone has told me." she injects between Ragha's two statements.

" His moods wre often changing as he both fell for me and continued to hide our love from his father. Once Jagrin found out i thought things would get better, but then he got caught up in an investigation. of......." she struggles to hold back tears."His greatest work. I couldn't get him to tell me what the new writing was about, but I OH! could also tell that it was not just his creation, but based on something happening. To think the last time I was so angry. "

"Kurst is convinced it isn't and while I don't know Rodrick all that well I agree it's unlikely. It's a matter of figuring out how and why." This was all rather odd to Ragha. She wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to feel, things like this didn't matter where she came from.

"You say you don't know exactly what he was up to. Was he anxious about it? Did he mention anything about being scared of something? Did he have enemies?"

She then fumbled around in her pack to pull out the hopeknife. "This is the blade that was used. Do you recognise it? Kurst said he didn't know if it was Rodrick and that you two might have exchanged blades."

Malthu was definitely puzzled by the discussion of Rodrick's greatest work. "So Rodrick was a writer, then? What kind of stories did he write? Do you know where he kept his writing? Also, you mentioned that the last time you were angry. Does that mean you were fighting about this work? Or what were you fighting about? And what's Omast's involvement in all of this?"

He also asks a few questions regarding the family. "How did Jagrin react to learning about your love for each other? How did everyone else react? Was anyone else in the family upset?"

For flow I'm going to combine Ragha's first set of questions and Malthu's then get to the hopeknife.

"The invesitigation seemed important enough to him that he was almost ignoring me at times, but it didn't seem life threatening or like the town was in danger. It just sounded like he had found something to write about that filled with him with passion. His writings mostly focused on orc and human battles and affairs. You may have heard that his latest poem was titled "The Other Side of Contempt." It focused on how it would feel to be a half-orc whose mother was slain by humans who had overrrun his hometown. Others focused on famous battles of Trunau and some portion of our love. Topics that could earn ire, but not lead to enemies, besides he was beloved by the town. I couldn't imagine a local harming him." You guys seem to have calmed her down, or perhaps like with Kurst talk of it being murder has filled her with anger as to temporarily hold back the emptiness.

"That's not my hopeknife. It is not the knife i grew up with. Rodrick and i exchanged knives as many couples do in Trunau. So Rodricks hopeknife was mine." She grabs the chain around her neck and pulls out a hopeknife. "We also had Sara Morninghawk add an engraving to the knives." YOu can read that the hopeknife has "For Brinya my love engraved on it." " Our argument was actually over the knife. He had misplaced it at some point and tried to hide it from me." This revalation causes her to break down into tears again.

Roosevelt nudges the bed with his foot. "Well, this mattress is probably wrecked. Don't think I can clean off this much blood. Does he have a journal or something around here?"

EDIT: Roosevelt then looks under the bed to see if there's anything down there.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

"Ah, fantastic idea! Nothing by the window over here either it seems...which is too bad, I'd have bet a lot there'd be a clue over here."

CLUE FOUND! Under the bed Roosevelt notices a slip of paper stuck between the wooden bed frame and the wall. As if it had fallen from the bed. Once opened it reveals itself to be a receipt. ReceiptSUCHCLUE

Rodrick had a lover on the side with the same name???? :O

"Wow, would you look at that. Maybe that's the knife he killed himself with? I wonder why he had to order himself a second one, and why a smith would make someone a hopeknife for themselves."

"Well, at least it's a lead, let's finish up the room and go talk to this 'Urnsul.'"

Rormar gazes around the room for anything big that they may have missed, not really wanting to take a look at the mattress.

"Huh. So there's two identical knives. Or he lost his old one and had to replace it without his girl knowing. Either way, we definitely should stop by the smith's after this. We miss any spots here?"

"I agree that the killer might have left clues through the blood, Rormar"

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22 checking how the blood is positioned on the bed (heal can't be used for this I don't think)

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9 checking for any unusual blood around the room, Rurik will search up until Roosevelt says "We miss any spots here?"

Heal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20 checking for unusual quality of blood (such as blood not belonging to Rodrick) also, don't know if heal can be used for this, so ignore if it can't

"One minute, let me finish checking for any odd signs of blood around the room."

side note, glad I'm back! :D I'll be able to post daily now.

The blood is the amount you expect, where you expect and there is no other blood in the room. If this was murder Rodrick didn't get a chance to fight back.

Malthu thought back to Denali, the wife that he once had. In a way, he had been responsible for her death, and the death of his children, by bringing a disease to them. He knew how terrible it felt to carry that blame. He wondered if Brinya felt the same way because she thought Rodrick killed himself after their argument. But given what he had learned, Malthu had different ideas.

"You know, I think Kurst is right. If this wasn't his hopeknife and wasn't your hopeknife, then it doesn't make any sense that Rodrick killed himself. We're gonna find the bastard who did this, and as far as I'm concerned, you should be the one who gets to execute him." From Malthu's point of view, vengeance was the only real comfort he could offer the crying half-orc.

Ragha nodded at Brinya's answers but was slightly shocked by Malthu's comment on executions, "Don't get ahead of yourself. First we need to find out who did it."

She then turned back to Brinya, "Thank you for your time and your answers. I think we are off to the smithy now. You will hear from us when we know more. Thank you again."

"So you really think he was murdered? If and when you find the man who did this come get me." Her orcish rage coming out. "I will show him that even Trunauan half-orcs know how to inflict pain.
Calming back down.
"I don't know if this will help, but Rodrick was going to the sanctuary a lot recently. We also used to meet at the plaguehouse for to uh meet without Jagrin knowing. Thank you for trying to find the murderer."

"That helps," says Malthu. "Let us know if you think of anything else. You can leave word at the Ramblehouse and it should get back to us. We're gonna check with Sara Morningstar next."

Ready to go. I think this is a little bit of a deviation from our plan, but identifying the murder weapon sure seems worth it.

"Okay guys, in absence of any other leads, shall we try to figure out something about the hopeknife while we wait for Ragha and Malthu to get back?"

Rormar muses on it for several moments.
Urnsul, Urnsul, I feel like I should know the name after being here for so long, but it's drawing a blank here.

Rormar scratches his head and looks musingly toward his companions.
"No clue who 'Urnsul' could be, but the receipt is for Sara's shop, we should probably go over there and see if she knows anything about it."

Well, looks like we're meeting up anyway, since we're both deviating from the plan

In reply to Rormar, "Good idea. The blood doesn't point to anything other than a suicide so there isn't anything else to do here."

"Yeah, might as well go to the smith's. Just let me clean up as much as possible, although I think this mattress is ruined.

Roosevelt casts a Prestidigitation to clean up the room.