Heward decides to accompany Goldroth to West Naos. It's unlikely that there will be trouble there, but you never know. He grabs his halberd on the way out. "Markiv, I'll tag along with you."
Awgin and Laya arrive at a modest, three-storey structure, which, like the buildings you are investigating, houses more than one business. You climb the stairs past the architect and design company on the first floor, and past the investment company on the second, to Guards and Wards on the third. There, you enter into a small but pleasantly furnished waiting room. Several doors lead off into the interior, and a smiling, professional-looking man in his middle years sits behind a desk. He was quite obviously expecting your arrival (or at least, somebody's arrival). His eyebrow arches slightly as he takes in the pair of you.
"Good morning. Are you looking to hire the services of Guards and Wards, or seeking employment with our company?"
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. They snap to quizzical attention at the sight of your badges and can easily direct you in the direction of Thora Rumblemountain. Picking your way through roof tiles, crushed furniture and shards of glass, you find a stocky dwarf on her knees examining some foundations and making notes in a small journal. Dust and grime cover her clothing, face, and balding scalp. Smudges of dusty ink stain her nose and left thumb. She looks up as you approach. "Watch your step, sirs. I've been telling these other fools time and time again these walls are still not safe, and the whole thing might come crashing down on our heads at any moment, but they're still picking through the dirt. How can I help you?"
Awgin produces his badge. "We need to talk to somebody about Brynder Flynn."
A map of this building is on the website.
Awgin produces his badge. "We need to talk to somebody about Brynder Flynn."
He gets up and goes to one of the doors, knocks, and enters. A moment later he returns and waves you in. "Mr. Sallerno will see you now."
"Thank you!" Laya says to the man and walks right in.
Awgin follows her.
Once you are seated, he returns to his desk and sits."My assistant tells me you wish to enquire after poor Mr. Flynn and the collapse of Irefoot Hall. Of course, I and all of my employees will co-operate fully with the Watch to bring this matter to a close. I will tell you all I can on the matter."
"Mr. Flynn has, err, had worked for me for a little over a year, and had been assigned night guard duty at Irefoot for the past five months. He has no family on file with us, and shares a small flop with two other night watchmen who work for me. I have never received anything but the best reports concerning Mr. Flynn's honesty and dedication to his job."
"As for the collapse itself, none of the building's silent alarms were triggered until the collapse broke the wardings, so no penetrations of doors or windows, and no pass wall spells were employed. If the building just collapsed, as it seems, we saw no evidence that it was happening, and if it was sabotage, again, our system gave us no warning."
Nazard and Markiv:
"Watch your step, sirs. I've been telling these other fools time and time again these walls are still not safe, and the whole thing might come crashing down on our heads at any moment, but they're still picking through the dirt. How can I help you?"
Heward steps back from the wall. He feels comfortable enough to handle basic introductions, "Sorry, Mrs. Rumblemountain. I'm Heward Wallas. This is Markiv Goldroth. We're looking into the collapse of this market and Irefoot Hall for the City Watch. We're not trying to step on your toes, but when the watchman was killed -- well we have to look into the possibility of murder if the collapse was intentionally triggered."
"Do you have any theories on the cause of the collapse?"
Markiv Diplomacy:
Heward Diplomacy:
"Theories!? I got plenty of theories, and not too few facts neither. Oh, it was intentional all right, no doubt about that. What I can't figure for is how the blazes it got done! Come on down here and have a look at these foundations stones. Don't worry, these walls are mostly stable."
She points out some cracked foundation stones nearby. "What do you lads make of these? See the tiny cracks on the outside of this one, and again, tiny cracks on the inside of the same stone. Now you're saying to yourselves that these tiny cracks can't be enough to bring this section of the wall down, and you know what, you folks are pretty smart. Here's where it gets strange." She digs her pick into the top of the foundation stone where a cut has already been made and pulls the two fragments apart. "So now how inside the stone, the cracks are freakin' huge? And look at these dents. What do they look like to you? Fist prints! I know, right!? Somebody was punching the bloody foundation stones, from inside the stones, weakening them and making the walls collapse. Now I have seen a lot of collapsed buildings, and I've seen termites, I've seen poor maintenance, I've seen one bloke who bloody sawed through the timbers holding up his ex-girlfriend's house, but I've never seen anything like this. You?"
Laya stands on her chair rather than sit. "You mention your company's system, Mister Sallerno," she says. "Can you tell us about the system? I take it you use alarm spells since you mentioned silent alarms, but what other protective measures do you use? Has anybody ever successfully beaten your system before, and if so, how did they do it? Assuming you know, that is."
"I do hope you find that this was all an unfortunate accident. Irefoot Hall still owes thousands of gold pieces on their system, and if it turns out that this collapse was sabotage, we'll have to forgive the rest of their debt. Can't very well charge them for a security system that doesn't prevent their building from crashing down. Of course, if you do find that it was a deliberate collapse, I would very much appreciate you letting me know the identity of the blackguard...so that I may persue certain legal financial actions to recoup my losses. You understand, I would be very grateful indeed to have that opportunity. I stand to lose thousands, after all."
"We'll need to have word with his flop-mates, of course." Adds Awgin. "I'm sure you know of the collapse of the West Naos Market. Did they also contract with you?"
Mr. Sallerno gives you the address of Flynn's flop.
DM and Markiv:
"Theories!? I got plenty of theories, ... but I've never seen anything like this. You?"
At her invitation Heward clambers down next to the dwarf. He looks at the rocks, but even with her commentary theire appearance signifies nothing. He answers, "No, ma'am."
Then he hopes that Markiv says something intelligent.
The Watchmen point you in the direction of the body.
Erodel Perception:
Calatin Perception:
With Erodel's help, Calatin is able to spot a pair of furrows in the rubble leading toward the body, and another larger, winding trail. Also, the rubble over top of the body doesn't look like enough to crush a man to death.
"Was there some way to turn off the system at Irespan? Other than Mr.Flynn, who had authorization to bypass the system and how does is the system made to recognize them?"
"Please excuse my ignorance. I figured that at the start of business the magic would allow more free access to the site. But what you are saying is that the magic was focused on the exterior doors and windows along with some important interior doors? It sounds that, apart from the obvious, the magical protection is similar to mundane defenses."
"Please excuse my ignorance. I figured that at the start of business the magic would allow more free access to the site. But what you are saying is that the magic was focused on the exterior doors and windows along with some important interior doors? It sounds that, apart from the obvious, the magical protection is similar to mundane defenses."
"Yes, pretty much. They could have had wardings on the inside that would have detected unauthorized presences, but those are expensive, so they instead opted for a security guard. Mr. Flynn had an enchanted crystal with him which he could have easily broken to signal a problem. For some reason, he didn't do it. The collapse must have happened before he could."
Calatin Perception:
Calatin Heal:
Erodel Perception:
Erodel Heal:
As Erodel helps Calatin check the body over for evidence, he finds two pairs of puncture marks on Flynn's scalp beneath his hair, one pair on the top of his head, the other behind his right ear. The puncture wounds don't look to be fatal, however. vSearching his body, you find the weapons and armour you'd expect a night guard to have, a flaming stone which creates no heat (continual flame on a rock), a few silver and copper, and a clear crystal about three inches long.
Checking over the body for injuries, Calatin finds many crushed, dislocated, and broken bones, suggesting very strongly that he was crushed to death.
How else do you wish to investigate the scene?
|
Investigating the body further..
"What in the Nine Hells are these puncture marks? he says, pointing to the marks on the man's scalp and behind his ear.
Do you have any way of detecting poison? It is a trick I've always meant to learn, but have not done so yet."
Looking through the deceased's possesions...
"Any idea what the crystal is about?"
"I think we ought to follow the trail and see if we can figure out where the guard was at the time of his death." he says, fully convinced that this is not where the man died.
Following the trail proves difficult, as much debris has been shifted about. It would seem to head in the direction of the most serious damage (North West corner), before becoming completely obscured.
Erodel Perception:
Calatin Perception:
Tylluam Perception:
As the two of you are following the general line of the trail, looking for further instances, Calatin stumbles over a bit of debris. Erodel manages to catch him before he falls any further, and in doing so, notices a tiny scrap of blue paper which had been hidden beneath the rubble. Snatching it up, he sees a few markings: part of what looks like a logo, and the corner of a square. There is no writing.
Erodel Knowledge Local:
The bard doesn't recognize the logo.
Nazard and Markiv :
Bigger cracks on the inside?
Heward scratches his temple, then hazards, "What if water got into the cracks and turned to ice? I did a rotation at Hook Mountain. Ice broke some huge chunks off the cliff and they dropped into the perimeter."
Laya frowns slightly. "I'm a bit confused. You said earlier that no passwall spells were used, but now you've just said that all your system did was detect whether a door or window was opened. If that's the case, there really are a lot of ways to bypass your security. The system informs you if a door or window is opened, and if a crystal is used, you get a green signal that all is good. If not, you get a red signal. Does the system let you know how many people enter?" She starts pacing, but realizes quickly that there's not enough space on the chair and stands still again.
"I mean, if it just indicates an open door, then Mister Flynn might enter the building and use his crystal, telling you that everything is fine. But unknown to Mister Flynn, there's an invisible villain right behind him, and that villain slips in while the door is open, completely undetected by your security system. Or someone could teleport in. Or perhaps even dig in from underground. Or even use a passwall on a section that doesn't have a door. Yet you said a passwall definitely wasn't used. How do you know this? What else does your system detect? I'm sorry to press so hard, but if someone did manage to break into the building, we need to figure out how they did it."
I have no more questions for him right now. If you're done, Laya, we can go check out the flophouse and get back to the others.
"Marks coming from inside the stone you say? At least it will be easy to tell if the same phenomenon occurred at the other building..." Markiv takes a seat somewhere that looks safe, weary from the journey over. "Sir Wallas, why don't you take a look around the area. Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will uncover something that was missed by laymen. I need a moment to dwell on how this could have happened."
After resting for a minute he stands and joins Heward.
Laya nods sagely. "I would agree," she says. "However, we have to check every possibility. If we can eliminate the possibility that someone got inside, then we can narrow our options down considerably."
She hops down from the chair. "Well, thank you for your time, Mister Sallerno. You've been very helpful. If we have any more questions, we'll be sure to come see you again." She walks round his desk and holds out her hand, taking a quick glance at everything on, behind, and under the desk that she can see.
"Marks coming from inside the stone you say? At least it will be easy to tell if the same phenomenon occurred at the other building..." Markiv takes a seat somewhere that looks safe, weary from the journey over. "Sir Wallas, why don't you take a look around the area. Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will uncover something that was missed by laymen. I need a moment to dwell on how this could have happened."
After resting for a minute he stands and joins Heward.
It's always possible that some mage has researched a spell that would do this job, although you'd have to wonder why bother. A shatter spell wouldn't work from the inside of the stone like this, at least not ones that big, and no punching marks. Several magical creatures are able to move through stone, although they usually leave a tunnel. Earth elementals don't leave a trail, so they might be able to inflict this kind of damage. All in all, he can't really come up with a definitive answer.
Heward Perception:
Heward gives the area a thorough going-over and finds no further clues, though he does find tons of merchandise from various shop keepers. Every time he pulls something out, the owner is immediately there with a 'thank you' and a hand out. By the end of his search, the other owners have realized what a good searcher he is and have been following him around, ticking items found off their various lists of inventory.
Calatin is just absorbing information like a sponge at the moment.
(Apart from a small corner of his mind that is, for inexplicable reasons, thinking of sponge cakes!)
"The puncture marks might be from a serpent or insect. Either to kill or to incapacitate"
You said the body looked like it had been crushed to death, only not by the beams under which it was found. Do the injuries show signs of bleeding or bruising?
Calatin finds very little bleeding around the crush sites. He also finds very few scratches or lodged debris.
Laya nods sagely. "I would agree," she says. "However, we have to check every possibility. If we can eliminate the possibility that someone got inside, then we can narrow our options down considerably."
She hops down from the chair. "Well, thank you for your time, Mister Sallerno. You've been very helpful. If we have any more questions, we'll be sure to come see you again." She walks round his desk and holds out her hand, taking a quick glance at everything on, behind, and under the desk that she can see.
Slightly surprised, he nonetheless shakes her hand. "Of course. Anything I can do to help."
On his desk are several leather folders, all closed, although the top folder is labelled "Irefoot Hall". There is nothing behind the desk, but from her unique vantage point she can see a loaded and readied light crossbow secured to the underside of the desk.
Looking for some direction on how various pairs wish to continue investigating. I gather that Laya and Awgin will next be heading to the flophouse to question Flynn's roommates, but I don't know about the other four. There are lots of watchers/rubberneckers around the Irefoot Hall site, and lots of shopkeepers at the West Naos Market site.
"Marks coming from inside the stone you say? ..." Markiv takes a seat .... "Sir Wallas, why don't you take a look around the area. Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will uncover something that was missed by laymen. I need a moment to dwell on how this could have happened."
After resting for a minute he stands and joins Heward.
...
Heward Perception: 1d20+5
Heward gives the area a thorough going-over and finds no further clues, though he does find tons of merchandise from various shop keepers. Every time he pulls something out, the owner is immediately there with a 'thank you' and a hand out. By the end of his search, the other owners have realized what a good searcher he is and have been following him around, ticking items found off their various lists of inventory.
Heward digs through the rubble. A kind of childlike delight fills him as he plays a rather rewarding game of hide and seek with valuable lost items. At least he's being of some use, and the reputation of the Watch is being bettered. Still he feels a twinge of regret as each piece, especially the antique silvered dagger, is claimed by its owner.
Seeing Markiv rise, he asks, "Are you ready to go, Markiv? We could check Irefoot Hall for those marks in the stone."
If they are leaving, he asks the City Inspector, "Mrs. Rumblemountain? Will you be examining Irefoot Hall, or will someone else from your office be there?"
"Marks coming from inside the stone you say? ..." Markiv takes a seat .... "Sir Wallas, why don't you take a look around the area. Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will uncover something that was missed by laymen. I need a moment to dwell on how this could have happened."
After resting for a minute he stands and joins Heward.
...
Heward Perception: 1d20+5
Heward gives the area a thorough going-over and finds no further clues, though he does find tons of merchandise from various shop keepers. Every time he pulls something out, the owner is immediately there with a 'thank you' and a hand out. By the end of his search, the other owners have realized what a good searcher he is and have been following him around, ticking items found off their various lists of inventory.Heward digs through the rubble. A kind of childlike delight fills him as he plays a rather rewarding game of hide and seek with valuable lost items. At least he's being of some use, and the reputation of the Watch is being bettered. Still he feels a twinge of regret as each piece, especially the antique silvered dagger, is claimed by its owner.
Seeing Markiv rise, he asks, "Are you ready to go, Markiv? We could check Irefoot Hall for those marks in the stone."
If they are leaving, he asks the City Inspector, "Mrs. Rumblemountain? Will you be examining Irefoot Hall, or will someone else from your office be there?"
"Somebody else?" she asks, cackling with glee. "That's a good one! Just what kind of budget do you think we have anyway? There's me in the field, and the two kids in the office. Good lads, not the brightest, though. Lost the blueprints for the Market here. How you can lose blueprints from a shelf of file folders, I don't know. Probably means they misfiled it, or don't know their alphabet or something."
"Somebody else?" she asks, cackling with glee. "That's a good one! Just what kind of budget do you think we have anyway? There's me in the field, and the two kids in the office. Good lads, not the brightest, though. Lost the blueprints for the Market here. How you can lose blueprints from a shelf of file folders, I don't know. Probably means they misfiled it, or don't know their alphabet or something."
Seeing Markiv rise, he asks, "Are you ready to go, Markiv? We could check Irefoot Hall for those marks in the stone."
If they are leaving, he asks the City Inspector, "Mrs. Rumblemountain? Will you be examining Irefoot Hall, or will someone else from your office be there?"
Heward looks for a graceful recovery. "So, have you had a chance to examine Irefoot Hall at all then?"
Heward looks for a graceful recovery. "So, have you had a chance to examine Irefoot Hall at all then?""Somebody else?" she asks, cackling with glee. "That's a good one! Just what kind of budget do you think we have anyway? There's me in the field, and the two kids in the office. Good lads, not the brightest, though. Lost the blueprints for the Market here. How you can lose blueprints from a shelf of file folders, I don't know. Probably means they misfiled it, or don't know their alphabet or something."
Seeing Markiv rise, he asks, "Are you ready to go, Markiv? We could check Irefoot Hall for those marks in the stone."
If they are leaving, he asks the City Inspector, "Mrs. Rumblemountain? Will you be examining Irefoot Hall, or will someone else from your office be there?"
"Not yet, but I'll be over there after lunch."
Calatin wants to search around a bit, see if he can find where the night watchman met his demise.
Has Tylluan found anything yet, from his aerial survey?
All he can determine is that the body wasdragged from the northwest corner where the devastation was highest.
"Thank you Mrs. Rumblemountain, that will be all for now. We're going to join our colleagues at Irefoot Hall, perhaps we will meet again." As they leave the collapsed building Markiv speaks to Heward, "I'm curious about those missing papers, we'll have to keep that in mind. For now I think it would be best to find out what the others discovered and look for those marks at the hall."
"Thank you Mrs. Rumblemountain, that will be all for now. We're going to join our colleagues at Irefoot Hall, perhaps we will meet again." As they leave the collapsed building Markiv speaks to Heward, "I'm curious about those missing papers, we'll have to keep that in mind. For now I think it would be best to find out what the others discovered and look for those marks at the hall."
Laya nods sagely. "I would agree," she says. "However, we have to check every possibility. If we can eliminate the possibility that someone got inside, then we can narrow our options down considerably."
She hops down from the chair. "Well, thank you for your time, Mister Sallerno. You've been very helpful. If we have any more questions, we'll be sure to come see you again." She walks round his desk and holds out her hand, taking a quick glance at everything on, behind, and under the desk that she can see.
Slightly surprised, he nonetheless shakes her hand. "Of course. Anything I can do to help."
On his desk are several leather folders, all closed, although the top folder is labelled "Irefoot Hall". There is nothing behind the desk, but from her unique vantage point she can see a loaded and readied light crossbow secured to the underside of the desk.
Laya and Awgin say their goodbyes and head to the address of the flop house they received from Mr. Sallerno. It's in a slummy part of the Marches, though certainly nothing as bad as the hovels of Rag's End or Underbridge. There, they find Misters Parko Finderal and Jom, Flynn's short-haired, thick-necked roommates. They let you in to the sparsely-furnished apartment and offer you a seat. Jom looks like he's been crying.
Laya Diplomacy:
Awgin Diplomacy:
"What can we do ya fer, officers?" Parko asks.
"You can tell us about your roommate."