She lets the dwarfs tone seem unnoticed particularly because the dwarf is right, probably. "Well, thank you for your time if you find anything please let me know." If the dwarf asks how to contact, she will answer.
She turns to Krojun when he speaks, and replies,
"Be sure to ask about any unusual or rare items they may have obtained recently as well as whatever items they cant find, this may be to cover a theft and if it is I would like to know what is missing. I will ask around and see if any locals know what happened that night."
Rumblemountain assures her that she will keep MSI in the loop.
Lady Trace spends an hour canvassing the locals. Unfortunately, she is unable to learn anything of any interest, save that a few people heard crashing sounds, like stone against stone shortly before the building collapsed.
"Sure thing lady Trace."
I was born yesterday little girl. Oh well, let the her play noble, it'll be easier in the end and besides it wasn't half bad thinking. Krojun thinks as he walks towards the people sifting through the rubble of what was once the West Naos Market.
He presents his badge and says loud: "Your attention please. I'm Krojun Hora with the City Watch, I would like to have a word with all of you." As he lets his statement settle, he looks and the gathered merchants and helpers to see if anyone acts suspicious. He then continues: "I would like for you to try and remember if you had any unusual or rare item that is missing and if you noticed anything suspicious in the days before the collapse."
"Missing?" a dusty dwarf asks irritably. "What do you think we're all doing here? Finding out if there's anything missing. We'll let you know when we don't find anything."
A few others grumpily nod along with the dwarf and turn back to their searching.
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"Well this fellow certainly didn't starve to death," Grigory quips as they load the corpse into the MSI carriage and securely lock the compartment. "I wasn't expecting to get such a workout today."
"I suppose we ought to start searching the other stores for clues before we talk to the owners..." he trails off, heading toward the site of the least devastation -- Kovesna's.
When she comes back, "Krojun, find out anything?"
As I figure he has not spent an hour yet I put below a reponse for if he finds something and if he doesn't.
If so, "I will be at the library researching what it might take to do this."
If not she will work with him going to each merchant in turn instead of addressing them as a crowd.
Diplomacy
"I'll put it another way then, before the collapse did any of you have any unusual or rare items?" Krojun rephrases mildly irritated, then adds: "And anything suspicious happened?"
"Unusual or rare?" an annoyed bookseller replies. "We did not sell junk here, sir. We had many fine wares, both unusual and rare. Not all of them are accounted for yet, and won't be for many days if we are to stand around answering your stupid questions. And yes, something suspicious happened. The building fell down. See?"
However, he's not learning anything with his Diplomacy check of 7, and that 12 isn't going to be enough to smooth over the ruffled feathers to learn anything either.
"You know what, have nice day" Krojun walks off shaking his head at the merchants attitude. What a bunch of morons.
After this he starts to look around at the site to see if anything catches his eyes and answers lady Trace in a gruff voice, when she returns: "Nothing, it is easier to get the Sklar-Quah to accept outsiders than getting a useful answer from those morons. Perhaps you should ask them, they're more your kind pf people, no offence."
Perception:
Knowledge arcana at the Stone's library,
taking hours
"Alright Krojun, I am heading to the library to what I can find, poke around and we can meet at the barracks tonight to share."
Timeline:
10h30: Grigory, Eudonius, and Dublaine begins searching the building site for clues
10h30: Krojun continues to annoy merchants at West Naos Market, getting nowhere
13h00: Lady Trace finishes her research into likely causes of this collapse, learning the information below.
You make your way to the library at the Stone of Seers. The magnificent building impresses you as always, and with the weather so beautiful outside, most students who aren't in class are sitting out on the grass enjoying the sun. One of her classmates, a notorious womanizer named Lyeban Lerath, who should be several years ahead of her except that he spends more time studying the female students than he does his magic books, stops her as she heads inside with his trademark smile and toss of his ample head of hair.
"My Lady Trace," he says. "Surely you are not planning on spending such a glorious morning cooped up inside, are you? My friends and I would be most honoured with your gracious company." He indicates several of his friends, other male students with a similar reputation.
Assuming she does not choose to forsake her sworn duties to hob-nob with hormornal twenty-somethings, Lady Trace is able to narrow her search down to one possibility. Given that the damage to the stone happened on the inside, with no damage from the outside to the interior, it would need to be caused by some effect that can bypass several inches of solid rock. While a shatter spell could cause that kind of damage, a spell-caster capable of affecting so much rock with that spell would have other, much simpler and faster means of destroying the building. Trace begins thinking of creatures, summoned or otherwise, that could bypass rock in that fashion, and decides that the earth glide ability of earth elementals is the most sensible answer.
After having annoyed the merchants at the West Naos Market a frustrated Krojun walks back through the streets of Magnimar. Expecting that his colleagues won't be back yet he decides to head back to his old station to have a chat with his former fellow watchmen and ask them to keep an ear out for information regarding any merchandise from either the West Naos Market or Irefoot Hall.
He is still a little surprised by the building inspectors comment that someone or something smashed the foundation from the inside. Another thing that annoys him, is that he can't figure out the why yet, so he decides to return to the station to think.
Later, after her research, she goes to the barracks to find the others and see what they found, if they are not there she will go to the hall.
After loading and locking the body on our wagon Eudonius will follow Grigory and help him with his search.
Dublaine Perception:
With Dublaine and Eudonius' help, Grigory literally stumbles over a large piece of rubble in the alley way beside the building (outside of the dress shop). Underneath the rubble is a small scrap of blue paper, clearly a torn corner of a much larger piece. Along the tear are two straight line making a right angle, like the corner of a square, and in the other corner is some sort of logo.
I need a Knowledge: Local check to identify the logo.
Dublaine stared at the piece of paper, though new to the city, he thought he might have seen the sign before...
Perception checks for clues at the scene have been completed. There may or may not still be things to learn, but with the Perception check of thirty, you just barely found the scrap. If there's anything else left to find clue wise, you aren't finding it.
Eudonius' Knowledge: Local Aid attempt:
Grigory notes the similarities between this logo and other official City of Magnimar logos he's seen to make a connection, and between the three of you, you piece together that belongs to the Magnimar City Planner's Office. Eudonius remembers seeing such an office somewhere in Keystone.
Timeline:
11h30: Grigory, Eudonius, and Dublaine finish searching Irefoot Hall for clues
12h00: Krojun arrives back at MSI after visiting his old precinct
13h20: Lady Trace arrives back at MSI.
Hmmm, City Planner's office. We should probably regroup before moving on. Do you gentleman wish to talk to the neighbors before we leave this place?
"Hello Mrs. Grigglespan, has anyone else yet returned?"
"Yes, Krojun's over there." Mrs. Grigglespan replies as she gestures in Krojun's direction.
The Lady walks back to where Krojun is, "Krojun, I believe an earth elemental was summoned to cause the collapse, we will have to see if the same marks are in Irespan Hall. Just my current theory of course. Did you find anything of interest?"
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"Assuming the City Watch was successful in keeping the shopkeepers around, we might as well see what we can find out from them... and about them... before we go anywhere else. Let's talk to them outside and then bring them in one at a time to look over the damage. Maybe they'll notice something we didn't find out of the ordinary."
ok Dublaine will assist in trying to find out if the onlookers saw anything more.
Otherwise if there is nothing else to find here, I agree with Eudonius and we should regroup and compare notes back at MSI.
So the three of you gather the shopkeepers and bring them one at a time into the destruction, gauging their reactions. Kovesna mainly starts grabbing up pieces he finds, grimacing at dents and dust, and smiling broadly when he finds an intact piece. Trintarian's office mostly contained papers and books. He first checks his vault, finds it uncompromised, and starts gathering up books, stuffing them into a bag that never seems to get full. Yvana looks sadly at all her ruined dresses and bolts of silk. Kinman kicks debris about at every ruined antique and destroyed piece he finds, eventually ranting about Varisians in the most unflattering tones possible. Magda wistfully picks up broken pieces of display case, gathering a few gems she finds, and comments on how it's going to take her weeks to find everything that's been scattered.
None of them react in any way suspicious to you that they were involved in the collapse.
If you'd like to ask any specific shop keepers specific questions, post away.
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Questions for each shopkeeper individually:
Do you regularly do business with any of the shopkeepers who were affected by the West Naos Market collapse?
Someone was here after the collapse... Why wouldn't they take anything from your store?
Have any of the other shopkeepers been acting suspiciously lately?
Have any suspicious characters been hanging around the hall recently?
And for Kinman specifically:
"What was that about Varisians?"
Answers to the above questions:
No, none of the shopkeepers have done any business with the shopkeepers of West Naos Market, save Trintarian, who has bought a few books before from Folio Five.
The shopkeepers roll their eyes when Grigory asks why nothing was taken, and generally respond with the statement that with this much damage it'll be days before they can determine if anything is missing.
Kinman describes all sorts of suspicious behaviours of Magda, Yvana, and Kovesna, but his bigotry against Varisians becomes obvious, and it's clear that the three of them aren't the fondest of Kinman as well.
Kinman tells of two suspicious characters: a tattoed-Shoanti savage who had come into his store yesterday that he remembers being in his store a few months ago. The man didn't buy anything, just looked around the merchandise for a few minutes and left. He also tells of an old Varisian woman, a witch, who had been harrassing him for quite some time, promising disaster would befall him and hexing and cursing him.
Eudonius stands back and watch while Grigory and Dublaine interview the merchants. He keeps his hands in his pockets not sure what do do with them. With some effort he ask the distastefull cheliaxian merchant some questions of his own.
And who are this tattoed shoanti and this witch mister Kinman? And where can we find then?
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After hearing Kinman's answer to Dr. Lynch's question, Grigory asks each of the shopkeepers a few more things:
How recently did you enlist Guards and Wards for your overnight security services?
Did Guards and Wards assign the same watchman or watchmen to Irefoot Hall, or were there different watchmen all the time?
Do you know much about the night watchman who was on duty last night personally?
Any idea how we can contact his family?
Any idea where we might find him?
"How should I know where they are? I don't associate with that kind of filth," Kinman responds to Lynch.
They enlists Guards and Wards two years ago, and had Mr. Brynden Flynn (the deceased) for almost a year now. He was liked for being punctual, discrete, and honest, and did his job discouraging simple thieves and running Tiberius off when he tried to sleep on their stoop, but nobody associated with him outside of the office. They have no idea how to contact his family.
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"Of course you don't associate with those types of individuals, Mr. Kinman," Grigory interjects. "But we'd like to know as much as we can about them so we have a better chance to bring them in for questioning."
"Was there any particular reason this witch said she wanted disaster to befall you? It seems like a strange coincidence for your shop to take the lion's share of the damage from the collapse after someone like that had been cursing you, wouldn't you say? Surely if she did have something to do with it, you'd want her to pay for it.
"And this Shoanti, what was so suspicious about him besides the fact that he was a tattooed savage perusing an emporium of fine antiques?"
"Remember, anything else you can tell us about either of those suspicious characters you mentioned might help us get them into custody.
And to all the shopkeepers:
"This Tiberius you mentioned, a local vagrant, I assume? Perhaps he might have seen or heard something last night. Any tips on where we might find him? Likely not on your stoop any time soon I'd venture."
"Remember, anything else you can tell us about either of those suspicious characters you mentioned might help us get them into custody.
Dublaine listened in Grigory certainly knew his stuff. His head was spinning trying to keep straight who said to what about whom, let alone the racial designations and terms. He had to wonder if he was in over his head. Not wanting to show his ignorance he did his best to take notes of what the shop keepers said. Basic though they were, he hoped his poor hand writing and passable spelling might make sense when he got back to the station to start to try and make sense of the deluge of information they were getting, most of which seemed to lack any traction in any one direction.
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After hearing all the shopkeepers have to say in response to his questions and reminding them to keep the MSI unit posted if they discover anything missing during the days to come, Grigory waits for them to wander out of earshot and speaks quietly to his comrades from MSI.
"That Kinman character seems like quite the people-person... Can't imagine why anyone would wish disaster upon such a pleasant fellow." he says, sarcastically. "I'm sure I'd be a bit edgy if my livelihood were turned to rubble, but he seemed especially snarky."
"The biggest questions I have revolve around the watchman, Mr. Flynn. Based on what we've seen, I think it's safe to assume his death was no accident. We've still got to figure out if it was premeditated or if whoever caused the collapse offed him to cover their tracks."
"Some nonsense about righting ancient wrongs against the Chelish nation, just because I had some pieces from when we put those people in their place. Bringing down curses on me for worshipping Asmodeus, as if I ever would. Just because that's what they do in Cheliax nowadays doesn't mean all of us do, though I do have a nice volume of the Asmodean Disciplines in beautiful calligraphy and bound in...leather. But it's just a book. But you can't expect Varisians to look past their bigoted prejudices."
"As for the Shoanti, exactly. What honest business could such a savage have in my store?"
The rest of the shopkeepers confirm that Tiberius is the local homeless man. The Watch run him back to Rag's End or Underbridge or wherever he comes from every now and then, but he's always back the next day.
Eudonius gives a relieved sight when the last merchant goes away. Ansciously he speaks.
I believe that was the last merchant. I think we should hed back to central and regroup now. I would like to start with our friend the nightwatch. Its unpolite to keep a corpse waiting. They tend to get...unpleasent.