As Rasil approaches with the Halfling to secure some paper and ink from Issceran, Simza little bothers to hide her distaste at the book in question. She tries to be professional even so.
"It was Mr. Merryweather wasn't it? How many people know that you're in possession of this book? If you had a list of customers who'd shown interest in the tome it could potentially help our investigations." she suggested politely, unaware of how the others had already bullied him into giving the book into their custody.
"I have several customers interested in this book, and I couldn't tell you their names if I wanted to. You understand, the sort with an interest in this kind of book don't tend to go about dropping their names for all to hear."
No, Rasil has never heard of this Madame Pietra, but Magnimar is a biggish city, and there are a lot of Varisian fortune tellers.
It's easy enough, however, for Rasil to track down Madame Pietra's shop, nearby in western Naos. You enter the small, gloomy shop. A smell of incense hangs heavy in the air, and many strange fetishes and occult symbols decorate the small store front. A curtain of hanging beads separates the front area from the back. You hear voices coming from the back, but can't quite make them out. A sign beside the curtain reads, "Reading in Progress. Do not disturb."
"Well, Barin, I believe it best if we wait. This shouldn't take too long. In case they just started, in which case it could take a while. Still, it wouldn't do to upset her, that might make her intractable during our interview."
Rasil looked around the shop, taking in the details.
Issceran rolled his wrists and put his hands on his hips, taking a final assessment of the scene. "Hmm," he murmured, drumming his satchel with his fingertips. The elf looked as contemplative as ever as he stood there quietly. While his companions were busy continuing to question those at the scene, Issceran wanted to try to uncover whatever else he could from the site. He glanced to Simza before moving more rocks, thinking about summoners as he did so.
"No, I suppose they don't." she agreed, a slight tone of disapproval to her words. "Well, thank you for your assistance, and we'll be sure to watch your book closely. If you find anything else unaccounted for then please let us know."
Simza leaves the halfling to return to his salvage, and rejoins Issceran. "Well it seems we may have some leads... Rasil and Barin are looking into a varisian who was harrassing Mr. Merryweather there, who owns the same rare book as Rav Kinman from Irefoot Hall, which seems quite coincidental. Would you like to come question some of the other shop owners with me?"
Perception check:
"Mmmmmh. Agreed. But be ready to move... I don't trust these charlatans..."
"I understand completely. Of course, I'm worried that Madame Pietra isn't a charlatan, so I don't want to upset her."
Koraq walks over to the elf and Varisian as they discuss who to meet with next.
"Yo, the dwarf and gnome are heading over ta see a potential lead, so I gotta keep an eye on ya two. It'd be my head of anythin' happened to you guys after all." The half-orc pauses for a moment, contemplating something before shaking his head and continuing. "So, who else ya wanna talk to? I think one of the lawyers're still here, and I'm sure one of 'em probably has an enemy or two."
Fifteen minutes later, a crying woman emerges from behind the bead curtain. A Varisian woman follows behind, comforting her. "There, there," she says. "Your husband is at peace now, and you know he loved you dearly." She escorts the woman out and turns to the odd couple in her foyer.
"And how may I help you gentlemen?"
Barin greets the woman with a small bow of his head:"Madame Pietra, right? Well, we are in need of your expertise. We've got a dear friend we feel to be meanced from mystical threats and we would enlist your help... His name is Kinman. Rav Kinman"
Brilliant! thought Rasil when he heard Barin's statement to Madame Pietra.
"Yes, Rasil said before he left." Simza replied to Koraq as the Half-Orc came over to them. She probably would have preferred to swap bodyguards with Rasil but that didn't seem in the cards. "Undoubtedly they do, but unless we discover something that links them to someone at Irefoot Hall I doubt this had anything to do with them. Still it's somewhere to start." she observed, before making a few inquiries about the current locations of the lawyers and other shop owners.
"I'd like to ask some questions, but can you tell me a little more about this book...? So a shopkeep here has one and a shopkeep at the previous site had one, both which are valuable. There is a possibility that a summoner has been destroying these sights," the elf mused, glancing to the half-orc. It seemed the lawyers were the next in line for questioning. "I'm finding myself with a mounting amount of research to perform after the day is over if this continues."
"Heh, better you than me. I'm no idiot, but that kinda stuff's over my head. Think we should go to the Prest fella' first; the name Garrus sounds like a confident guy who'll be harder ta work with."
Madame Pietra's eyes narrow into slits at Barin's statement. The temperature in the room drops slightly, and several candles gutter out in a sudden breeze that comes from nowhere.
"You tried on dangerous grounds," Madame Pietra says, her voice much lower and graver than it was a moment ago. "Your friend has made dark pacts with even darker beings, and brought such curses down upon himself. If you seek to aid him in removing these curses, you must first convince him to forsake his infernal allegiance and dispose of all unholy relics in his possession. Only then, will his soul be ready for redemption."
Her speech finished, the warmth returns to the room and the candles relight.
Simza is able to find the other shopkeepers, digging through debris just like the book seller, lawyers too.
Barin raises his eyebrows at the naked display of power:"Oh? So you know some tricks, after all..."
"You know of him already? That's good: we would be willing to "dispose" of this nasty stuff, but we really don't know what it looks like. So we came here to ask for your help. At a price, of course. What does he need to get rid of in order to save himself?"
Rasil eyed Barin with respect. I'll have to admit, he's doing a great job, he thought, glad to have the dwarf as a companion.
"For one thing, he possesses a copy of the Asmodean Disciplines. This is not just any tome of devil worship. His volume is bound in human skin and scribed in an ink made from human blood. This very book was used by actual devils within the realms of Hell itself. Such evil radiates, corrupts all nearby. Have your friend toss it to the flames."
Barin nods, gravely:"Yes, well... we know that! In fact he repented and gave it to us so we can cleanse the world of its corrupting influence! In fact we have it with us, right now! He asked us to contact you for help and said there's another copy of this book that needs to be destroyed. He mentioned some halfling... Merrysomething, I can't recall right now. Anyway, back to the copy we have... what should we do to get rid of this horrible book? Are you sure that just burning it will be enough to get rid of it and to erase the curse?"
Can I get a Bluff check here? :)
"Merry? Merryfoot, the bookseller? He has one of these tomes as well!? No doubt both men are victims of many more curses if they have soiled themselves with those tomes. I couldn't say as to how others may be removed. I would strongly suggest to you to abandon such a friend as Rav Kinman. Indeed, I'm surprised one such as he would ever think to call a dwarf and a gnome as friends, given that white-skinned humans are the only race with which he would wish to associate."
Sense Motive:
"Yes, well, we're old friends of the family you see. Rav grudgingly accepts us because of that."
"Anyway, it does seem that both Rav and Mr. Merryfoot have suffered--the buildings containing their shops have collapsed, and only days apart."
"As for the copy of that vile book, it's actually being held by one of our associates--I think my dwarven friend here forgot that."
"Well if you need any help, then I can try and lend a hand." she offered Issceran, even as Koraq expressed the opposite sentiment. She just nodded to him as he suggested they start with Prest though; she thought they'd be better off starting with Triffan or Ira, but no harm in starting with the lawyer.
"Mr Prest, good afternoon. I'm Simza Caumlo, with Magnimar Special Investigations. Would we be able to speak with you about your offices here at the Market?" she introduced herself after they tracked down the man in question.
"Magnimar what? Never heard of it." He looks at the badges, shrugs, and sits down on some rubble. "How can I help you?"
Actually, eternal hope only lets you reroll a natural one. Twos you have to keep.
"We're trying ta figure out why someone would cause this kinda destruction. Have any enemies that would think taking out your office would be a good way to piss ya off?
Actually, eternal hope only lets you reroll a natural one. Twos you have to keep.
"We're a new branch of the watch Mr. Prest." she explains, before Koraq intercedes. She nods towards him to affirm his questions, though that wouldn't have been the tact she would have taken. "Have you had any unusual clients recently, or anyone disgruntled with your work? Someone you uhh... had a case against that would be in a position to enact revenge like this?"
Bluff check:
"Like this?" the lawyer asks Simza, gesturing at the ruined building. "I make plenty of enemies in my line of work, but usually the ones capable of having something like this done are executed long before they get around to knocking our building down. Most of my enemies prefer to get their revenge in the Pediment Building...in the courts."
"Family friends?" Madame Pietra asks, scoffingly, but then something else catches her attention. "I had heard that West Naos Market had collapsed, but I did not realize Irefoot Hall had suffered a similar fate. Clearly those two men and their vile tomes have angered some great powers. It should serve as a warning to both of them to renounce such evil."
The bell at the door dingles as a middle-aged Varisian woman enters the shop.
"Now, if you'll excuse me," Madame Pietra says, "My next client has arrived, and the spirits will not wait. I believe you know the way out."
Madame Pietra has already moved off to tend to her new client.
Rasil motioned for Barin to join him outside.
"Well, um, that went differently than I anticipated. I definitely think that tome has something to do with the crimes."
"I think that we should head back to West Naos Market for now."
"Yeah. I wanted to confirm Merryfoot's story, and she basically confirmed it. What surprised me is she didn't want the book herself. And the fact she wasn't exactly sympatetic towards her employer... This one will need further scrutiny, but for now let's hear what our chelish friend has to say."
"So, back to Irefoot Hall, then?" Rasil said.
"Usually, 'eh? Leaves a bit of room for doubt... Guess you're the prosecutorial type. How 'bout the otha' guy, Garrus? He work to get people into or outta jail?"
Barin nods while increasing his pace:"Indeed, the fellow has a lot to answer for. And we absolutely need to check on that book... it might be a true danger for the whole of Magnimar, and I don't fancy having to fend off infernal legions if I can avoid it!"
Rasil and Barin set out for Irefoot Hall, in order to have another talk with Rav Kinman.
"Garrus? He doesn't work in the courts. He handles wills, estates, things of that nature."
Rasil and Barin make their way back to Irefoot Hall. The group of merchants are still there, even more antsy, in the middle of some sort of argument with the new Watchman guards in duty. You catch the tail end of the merchants insisting that they be allowed to start searching the wreckage, with the guards replying that the site has not been secured by the building inspector and they'll have to wait until then, before Trintarian and Madame Ivana notice the dwarf and gnome. Trintarian's reaction is to roll his eyes and vanish, the rest of the merchants leave the guards and descend upon the MSI inspectors, demanding to be allowed to search the site.
"Please! Please! Everyone, calm down!" exclaimed Rasil.
"You have to wait until the building inspector arrives. She'll check out the structure to determine if it's safe to go in. After all, it's bad enough that you've lost your shops, but it would be worse if you lost your lives in a collapse!"
Hoping that mollified the merchants, the gnome turned his attention to Rav Kinman. "Mr. Kinman, may my companion and I have a word with you in private?"
"Mr. Silverclaw has a very valid point, Mr. Prest," Issceran said. "Not every enemy is willing to resolve their disputes in a civil manner. Can you think of anyone with arcane knowledge and training that may not view you in a favorable fashion?" The elf built off of Simza's questioning.
Simza nods as Prest more or less confirms her assumption. She glances at Issceran, letting the lawyer answer his question before posing her own. "Did you noticed anyone suspicious around the market prior to the collapse? Anyone visiting one of the other people in the building that looked out of place perhaps?" she asks, trying to be thorough.
Kinman agrees to a discussion, moving aside with them to be alone.
Prest shakes his head. "Not really, no. My clients are semi-wealthy merchants and shop keepers, nobody with those kinds of resources or know-how."
"And no, nobody suspicious that really stood out. Just ordinary run of the day business until we showed up and didn't have a building anymore."
"We believe that there may be a connection between the crimes and a certain book that you may be in possession of," Rasil said.
"Do you know the whereabouts of your copy of the Asmodean Disciplines?"
Kinman glances worriedly around the three of you to make certain that nobody can overhear. "How do you know I have a copy of that for sale? It's not illegal to either own or sell, but some people get the wrong ideas, especially when I proudly sell Chelish antiques and artifacts."
He sits down on a piece of rubble. "My family came from Cheliax with the original settlers. Our country did not follow Asmodeus then, but Aroden. Now, continuing to worship a dead god is foolish, but not all people who proclaim allegience to Cheliax have chosen to worship the devil. But my copy of the Disciplines came up in an auction at too good of a price not to pick up and try to turn around. Of course, finding a customer for such a book is difficult." He stands up and worriedly looks to the rubble. "If it is gone, I'm out almost a thousand gold pieces. I'll show you where I kept it."
Kinman leads you carefully into the rubble, to the remains of a store counter. A bit of digging through the rubble reveals a safe, which Kinman opens. Inside are several stacks of papers and a familiar-looking book, the Asmodean Disciplines. He sighs with relief. "It's here." About to close the safe (after taking out the book), he pauses and grabs a stack of papers. "Here, these might help you. If you think whoever did this did it to make or cover up a theft, this is a copy of my current inventory. Probably easier to look at that than go digging through every bit of rubble."
He hands Rasil his shop's inventory list.
Surprised by Kinman's helpful demeanor, Rasil takes the inventory list. "Thank you, Mr. Kinman. Rest assured, we shall do everything in our power to bring those responsible to justice."
"Would you have a problem allowing us to hold on to this book during the investigation? I assure you that it will be returned. I'm authorized to give you a receipt to prove that it's yours and that it'll be returned after the investigation."
If Kinman allows this, we'll need to regroup and stay together to minimize the risk of carting around these tomes. Perhaps we should get in touch with Captain Percival and get his opinion about the safekeeping of these books.
Barin follows Kinman and Rasil silently for the whole time, when the Chelish offers to inventory recepit he intervenes:"Collaboration. Good. I need to inform you we will be confiscating that copy of the Book. At least until we can safely determine if that was the reason all of this happened. And... I also need to inform you we already have one of those in our possession. We know you wanted to get that one too. So drop the "nice merchant act". What do you know about summoners and can this book be used for that kind of purpose? Be careful with your answer, we've got ways to find out the truth..."