The guards point out the direction the group has gone (which is unfortunately nowhere near where they are now). However, after a bit of searching, you all manage to hook up. It's approaching 4 in the afternoon.
Rasil saw Simza and Koraq approach. "Greetings! How did the autopsy go?"
Oh, we hurled through our work; the body practically spewed interesting information, dotcha agree Simza?, grinning at the Varisian driver.
Then turning his attention to the gnome, Koraq jumps down from the wagon and starts sniffing the air. Hmm... I thought I smelt bacon... no, I think it's just rat. Now looking down at Rasil, the half-orc extends his hand out. I don't think we've formally met... I'm Koraq, and I need ta thank you for givin' me this opportunity to do my civic duty.
Rasil was taken aback by the half-orc's demeanor. "Um, are you referring to the illegal pit fighting that was going on? Because if you are, I couldn't stand by while people were being hurt. Granted, some--like yourself presumably--were there voluntarily, but others were forced into that situation."
The gnome steeled himself and stood to his full height--all 3' 2" of it. "However, if I might be so bold, I would suggest that you look at this as an opportunity to indulge your passion for violence in a constructive--and legal--manner. Hopefully breaking heads to uphold the law--and being paid to do so, will be ample compensation. I do hope that you can look past my involvement in your current circumstances and still work with and alongside me."
Rasil then extended his hand to the half-orc.
Koraq shakes the gnome's hand with a very firm squeeze.
, then leans in close to whisper into Rasil's ear.
I gotta admit this is better than sittin' in a cell but I HATE being forced into things... I'll take punks down for ya and use my skills to protect you scrawny guys, but I EXPECT some good words for me when the time comes.
Releasing Rasil's hand, Koraq then stands up, grinning once more and speaking in normal voice, Now that introductions are over with, let's get to work, 'eh Raz? Simz and I figured out what got the guard.
The gnome shook his hand to restore the blood flow, flexing it to insure that nothing was broken.
"Well, now that that is out of the way, please do tell us what you've learned."
Still a bit unsure about the half orc, Barin talks in a guarded tone:"We discovered something useful too, I guess. We got a pretty good idea of how the poor chap was killed, we found an eyewitness who saw the culprit."
Well, we can prove what killed the guard.. Koraq then turns his head back to wagon as Simza takes her time stepping down. Hey Simz, get ya keister over here. I ain't good with the medical terms and all.
Simza sighs again as she joins him and the others, Koraq apparently determined to lower her opinion of him with his teasing. She watches his little display of machismo with Rasil, but the gnome doesn't seem to be hurt by it so she doesn't interfere.
"The autopsy simply confirmed the cause of death we found on the scene, his chest was crushed by by something powerful wrapped around his body. After a deeper examination I believe with some certainty, that he was killed by a constrictor snake, the puncture marks I found on his head being caused by the creature's teeth when it grabbed him." the young girl seemed quite professional when she spoke like that, since it was certainly something more in her area of familiarity, even if she didn't know much about snakes. "Is that what your witness saw? More importantly did your witness see who moved the body? The snake must have had some sort of handler controlling it."
"Thank you, Simza. Yes, it was a snake--of a sort. It was the companion of a summoner. The witness even saw the otherworldly snake talk with it's handler. They both had an identical glowing rune on their foreheads--well, the humanoid's forehead and whatever a snake has for a forehead at least!"
Barin's grin widens at Simza's words:"Well, girlie, I'd say you did a good job. Our eyewitness, a certain Tiberius, an homeless person living near the scene of the crime, saw some sort of wizard waiting for some huge snake coming out of the collapsed building. The creature had a strange rune glowing on it's snout, the same the wizard had on his forehead. It seems the wizard and the snake were able to communicate and the creature gave its handler something before going back inside the building. So our stories match: the killing was done by a giant snake, controlled by someone who wanted to get something out of the building. Now we need to find out what this thing was. And given the rather unusual circumstances this killing presents I suggest we check the other crime scene to see if they are connected in any way. It seems to me this wizard might have wanted something from the other building too..."
Once Koraq and Simza arrived and they begin to share what they had found, Issceran promptly climbed into the back of the carriage. By the sun's position in the sky and the density of the city traffic, he guaged they only had a few more hours of sunlight to see the next site. When all was said and done, he found it hard to believe they had spent all morning at the site and around it during the investigation. The elf leaned back in the carriage seat and stretched out his legs. He was a little tired from tracking down Tiberius.
"Lets head to the next site," Issceran suggested from the carriage window. "We don't have a lot of hours left so lets make use of what time we have." He clapped the side of the carriage and gestured for the others to climb inside so they could go. They could talk while they traveled after all. He held his satchel and spellbook close, eyes peering out the window with a contemplative look.
Snakes and summoners, he thought.
"Excellent idea, Issceran!" Rasil climbed aboard the conveyance, finding a nice spot that gave him an unobstructed view of the area.
So I get ta take down a murderous snake AND freaky wizard? Sounds like fun!
With that, Koraq hops into the wagon and motions for Barin to follow.
Get over here dwarf! We can arm wrestle while we head to the other site!
Simza takes in Rasil and Barin's relating of Tiberius' statement, looking thoughtful out towards the Irespan as she considers.
"So the man didn't enter the building?" the girl knew virtually nothing about matters arcane. She thought this 'summoner' sounded unusual but she hadn't had a chance to study such things so far, though she hoped to correct that now that she was on friendly terms with a trained wizard. "and I take it this Tiberius didn't see the actual collapse?"
"Hmm... if the man didn't enter though then that means the snake must have dragged Bryden's body and knocked the debris on top of him, that could be when it bit his head rather than when it attacked him. This certainly sounds like no ordinary snake!" she remarks, startled from her thoughts as Issceran tapped the side of the carriage. She nodded, and moved back to the carriage with the others, glancing at Koraq as he invited Barin to an arm-wrestle, which left her with having to drive. She didn't mind too much, climbing up onto the drivers seat and opening the hatch so that she could still hear and talk with the others inside. "Did we get a description of the man and snake?" she asks through the hatch after everyone was inside and she had gotten the carriage moving towards the previous collapse.
From his perch atop the carriage Rasil replied, "Tiberius heard the building collapsing first, then saw it, but obviously not the cause. As for the person with the snake, he said that he wore a hood, and couldn't see his face."
Barin nods one last time:"Aye, that's all we know for now. If these summoners are so rare maybe we should check with the local magician guild. Could help alot to restrict our field of investigation...
After that Barin moves towards Koraq:"So you said you want to arm wrestle, eh? Very well. Let's go, half orc!"
Lookin' forward to this; ya seem to be the only one here who could take a hit if ya had to.
Sitting opposite of Barin in the carriage with a board as a prop, Koraq rests this elbow on it and locks hands with Barin.
The cramped cabin of the wagon probably wasn't the best choice for a test of strength, but Koraq puts in a fair amount of power.
"What about the snake itself?" she asked, glancing back at Rasil perched on the roof. It didn't seem like this witness was the most reliable, but his facts seemed to match up, even if the details were a bit light.
Barin grins a somehow wicked smile:"Very well. Just remember you were the one who asked for this...". The dwarf sits and clenches his fist around Koraq's. His arm muscles tense immediately as he puts all of his strength in the endeavour in front of him:
Strength check:
Edit:
Issceran soon realized he wished he hadn't sat inside of the carriage. He was stuck riding with the two “meat heads” while his more enlightened companions were on top of the carriage. Their conversation was briefly heard amidst the arm wrestling and carousing of Barin and Koraq. His fingertips continued to rap the carriage wall, glancing to the two with a sigh. I hope we get there quickly, he thought, wondering what mess waited for them.
"Well, according to the witness, the snake actually talked with the hooded man, and gave him something from inside the building. The snake then went back inside, while the man left."
"Unfortunately, Tiberius hid after that, and so that's all we know."
Koraq starts growling, in utter annoyance that the dwarf just didn't beat him, but made it look easy. "Grr.... best two outta three!", and props his arm back on the board for another round.
Hey Issy, you call when ta start!
Barin shakes his head grinning:"I can't see why would I want to do that... maybe AFTER you pay for some beer we can have a friendly rematch..."
Hrmph... yeah yeah... good jerb.... Koraq folds his arms across his chest and looks away, staring at the carriage ceiling as he pouts at the inability to save some face.
Glad ta see you're as strong as I thoughtcha were at least. Think yer my favorite one here next ta Simz; the dame's got some fire in 'er underneath the niceties and veils.
You have an easy time through the late-afternoon traffic and arrive at the address given to you by Captain Percival. There, you behold a scene of curious devastation. A polished bronze sign welcomes you to the West Naos Market, and the plaque beneath it advertises all the businesses it once housed. The building itself used to be a two-storey stone structure, faced in white granite, with a gently-sloping roof of red clay tiles. Now, only one corner still stands mostly intact, while their opposite walls have collapsed outwards into the alleyways beside and behind the building, and the ground floor is now littered with broken tiles and flooring from the second storey.
Several people pick their way through the rubble, sifting out merchandise or scroll records that are salvageable, while a perimeter of bored-looking City Watchmen stand guard against looters.
After the coach came to a stop, Rasil took in the scene.
"Well, let's introduce ourselves to the Watch and see if the Building Inspector is still here so that Issceran can get a look at the plans."
The gnome hopped down from the coach and strode toward the nearest Watchman and showed his badge. "I'm Rasil Bathbone from MSI. Can you please direct us to the Building Inspector and the officer in charge of the scene?"
Koraq steps out of the carriage, happy to stretch his legs out once again and get some space from Barin who was still gloating about his victory over the arrogant half-orc.
Seeing all the people looking through the rubble, Koraq immediately snaps at them. "Get yer paws up! This is a CRIME SCENE and you punks are contaminatin' our evidence!"
Barin nods at Koraq and admits:"Aye. You are no weakling either. And I agree about the others, I've known them for a really short time so I can't really judge, but they seem all convinced to be the the smartest of the smart... I fear when things will become dangerous the ones who'll have to run around saving their "oh so smart" hides will be us..."
Once the cart reaches West Naos Market Barin follows the others, he checks the list off shops in the collapsed building and chooses to start interrogating Thill Merryfoot from Folio Five to confirm a theory he's starting to build...
"Yes, mate, we are all inspectors for MSI, I'm Inspector Orcbane, and I'd like to speak with Mr Merryfoot for starters. Can you point me towards him?"
Then hearing Koraq's outburst he can only nod in approval of the half-orc's decision. All those curious people could mean a lot of problems when trying to understand what happened at the building.
Several of the "pawers" stop what they're doing, and glance at the Watchmen with confused looks. Some of them stay still, watching you, while the others return to rooting through the rubble.
"Well, you all took your sweet time," a cranky dwarves woman hollers, dusting herself off. "I was told to expect MSI hours ago. I could have had Irefoot Hall cleared and investigated by now, but I thought it best to wait for you lot, so I could give you my findings."
"Koraq, this is a 3 day old crime scene. While I agree that we need to get these people to withdraw while we examine the scene, there are better ways to do it then yelling at them. We are a bit late to the party." Simza couldn't quite keep the sigh from her voice as she pointed this out to the half-orc. Then however she simply followed Rasil to find the people (watch and civilian) in charge.
"Her name is Thora Rumblemountain" Simza whispered to Rasil as she came up behind him, reminding him of the name of the City Building Inspector that the Captain had told them should be here. Whether she had left already or not was another matter, however that line of thought was cut short as a Dwarven woman emerged from the scene in front of them.
"Apologies Mrs. Rumblemountain, our investigations at Irefoot Hall took longer than we expected." she said, giving her slightly awkward armored curtsy. She was getting a bit better at it though.
"I'm sure they did. Well, let's get this over with. All I've eaten today is some wormy meat pie these layabouts brought me from some Underbridge street hustler, and I need a beer!"
Rumblemountain leads you carefully through the rubble towards the worst of the devastation. With a sweeping gesture of h arm, she indicates some cracked foundation stones, some of which have been pried completely apart. A notebook and supplies for taking rubbings lie on the ground nearby. "Have a look. What do you see?"
Rasil walked over and looked at the foundation stones.
Rather embarrassed, Rasil didn't notice anything. "Um, Mrs. Rumblemountain? Well, ahem, I believe I don't see anything of note, but Issceran is our resident expert. I'm sure he'll know what we're looking for," He said with a weak smile.
Barin follows the others, curious about the dwarven woman:
Perception check (Stonecunning):
Getting to examine the scene the dwarf notices the foundation stones indentations:
"Well... seems like someone worked from the inside to get this building to collapse... look at these round holes here, and there... someone worked on the inside of the foundations to drill these holes... and I think the aim of that effort is laying all around us now"
"Yea yea, whatever." Koraq looks at the dwarf woman, giving her the once over for daring to snap back at the rugged half-orc.
"Look lady, don't get ya beard in a bunch. We're here now so you can take that funny hat and-", before getting cut off by Simza, flustered at getting the half-orc to be somewhat personable.
Actually, the inside of the stones are also unblemished. The pound marks only appear on parts of the stones that would have been inside the stones before they split open.
Issy, the elf thought, almost scowling at the 'pet name' the half-orc had the nerve to give him. He found the more time he spent alongside the two, the more he loathed the experience. He sighed and kept his eyes out the window and endured the comments until they finally arrived at West Naos Market. When they arrived he was the first person out of the carriage, stretching his legs out and sighing happily.
"Thank goodness," he murmured, glancing back to Barin and Koraq as they dismounted before looking to Simza and Rasil. He headed over with them where they would find Mrs. Rumblemountain. The elf offered the inspector a sincere smile as he took notice of the office symbol on her helm. He was soon to produce the piece of parchment with the very same seal.
"Ah, excuse me," Issceran said, showing her the paper. "At Irefoot Hall we found this amidst the wreckage. Might you be able to confirm or deny the originating parchment this may have come from?"
As they were escorted to the scene a sweeping gaze moved across the rubble. His observations were matched by that of the dwarf and half-orc. He nodded slowly, musing, "Very strange indeed. Hmm..."
"Given the nature of common construction techniques in modern buildings to semi-modern -- or rather, the timeframe in which this building may or may not have been built... I can't put a finger on the cause of this strange phenomenon without further investigation."
Simza just followed quietly behind Rasil, giving Issceran a sympathetic smile at his murmured comment as he got out of the wagon. She watched the dwarf woman as the wizard showed her the map fragment they'd found at Irefoot Hall, noting any unusual behavior on her part, but didn't really suspect her of being involved, though it certainly seemed plausible that someone at the City Building Inspector's office might be involved.
As Thora led them over to a cleared section of the foundations Simza peered at the cracked remains politely, but even after Barin mentioned about holes and drillings she had trouble seeing anything wrong. The mention of wormy food had upset her stomach, so she was a bit distracted, since while she was hungry, she was reluctant to eat anything herself with the memories of Brynden's autopsy fresh in her mind.
"Well Mrs. Rumblemountain, do you have any theories as to how this damage was accomplished?" she asked as Issceran admitts he doesn't currently have any.
"Here, let me see that," Rumblemountain says to Issceran concerning the fragment. "Yeah, this came from one of ours. We use this kind of parchment for blueprints. How it came to be found at Irefoot Hall, I have no idea, though it might explain why the blueprints for both collapsed buildings have apparently been 'mis-filed'. How a trained file clerk can mis-file a single pair of blueprints when that's all he does all day, I'll never understand. I suppose a mistake is bound to happen eventually, but both collapsed buildings? Either he has half the records room mis-filed, or something hinky's going on."
At the foundation stones: "Theories? I have plenty of theories, but none of them have any facts to support them. Frost heave can cause this kind of damage, but there has to be an initial crack for water to get into the centre of the stones. Plus, it's Rova in the middle of a heat wave. No, this looks like someone crawled inside the rock, through solid rock, and bashed the insides of the rock with a hammer without making a single mark to the outsides. Damned if I can think of how anybody could do that. A shatter spell might make marks like those, I suppose, but you'd have to be a pretty powerful wizard to affect rocks of these size with that spell, and at that point, such a wizard would have much more useful options to bring a building down, like rock to mud or something similar."
"Hmm... perhaps some sort of summoned creature?"
Koraq, now ignoring the dwarf woman who's busy talking to Issceran and Rasil, starts talking with the watchmen about what's been going on for the past few days.
Hey, guard. You've been here three days right? Anybody suspicious come by and look through the stuff? Anyone you don't recognize anyway?
The guards shake their heads. "A few looters tried to get in, kids mostly, and a street bum or three. Since the merchants have pretty much picked through the rubble, though, there's not much left worth stealing. We'll be gone tomorrow, I imagine, and thank the gods. What a boring detail!"
Rumblemountain shrugs, wincing as she rubs sore shoulder muscles. "Anything's possible. There are all sorts of extra-planar creatures who can do stuff with rock, I'd say, though that's outside my area of expertise. Talk to a wizard about that stuff."
Rasil dredged his eclectic store of knowledge to try and discern what might be a good fit for the building's destruction.
Nothing immediately comes to mind.
Once the cart reaches West Naos Market Barin follows the others, he checks the list off shops in the collapsed building and chooses to start interrogating Thill Merryfoot from Folio Five to confirm a theory he's starting to build...
"Yes, mate, we are all inspectors for MSI, I'm Inspector Orcbane, and I'd like to speak with Mr Merryfoot for starters. Can you point me towards him?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Rumblemountain." Noticing Barin's conversation with the watchman, Rasil added, "Please excuse me."
Rasil strode purposefully over to help Barin with whatever line of investigation the dwarf was engaged in.
A watchman points Barin (and eventually Rasil) in the halfling book seller's direction. He's out amongst the wreckage with a small pile of dusty and beaten times beside him, currently tugging away at a trapped volume.
Looking around and seeing others engaged in meaningful conversation, Koraq decides to do the same.
Hey, any other shop owners here I can talk to? I see the halfling and the dwarf she-beard are occupied.
Rasil motioned for Koraq to join Barin and himself. "Shall we go talk to Mr. Merryfoot?"
Beats waiting for the stout banshee to come back. With that, Koraq joins his shorter companions in the interro-...discussion with the halfling Merryfoot.