Murder! Murder! II (Inactive)

Game Master Clebsch73

The role playing may begin. Please post as you are able to indicate your availability.

Go to the following link to read a sample of newspaper accounts of the murders committed thus far.

Characters have gathered after discussing options for catching the murderer the previous night in a tavern. They are now on the stage of the City Pantheon theatre, on Portugal Street, just south of Lincoln Inn Fields.

Izzy is there, ready to help!

FYI The next two weeks are the crazy busiest time of the year for me, and I might not get to post much. After that, I should be much more free to play!

Dotting so This will show up, and then off to read the paper!

No rush. Post when you can. I'm likely to be a little slow as I discover things I need to work up.

Just a reminder: newspapers are a recent development and the interest in them has led to a free-for-all of competition for readership that would probably make our tabloids look tame. So information in newspapers is not necessarily reliable and it would be good to investigate anything mentioned in the paper to discover how accurate it is.

Edit: I will make knowledge rolls for all the people mentioned in the articles and post the results, once I have the core group gathered and posting, so no need to make rolls for that kind of thing. In general, if you want information based on a skill roll, let me know and I'll do the roll. I think that's better and helps keep the dice results from tipping off when information is good or bad; plus it distances the role-playing from the game mechanics.

Qat can answer some questions about the last victim, Gia.

She is more composed in the new day, rather low key and grim, but sharp and ready for action. "I had not seen my friend for a month," she says, avoiding saying her friend's name out of a Gypsy superstition against mentioning the name of the recently deceased. "I'm puzzled by the claim that she had stolen goods. She was a great thief, don't get me wrong, but I was not aware that she had made any big scores since I saw her last. She usually let me know and we'd celebrate when she had a good night. I also haven't been able to see her body or her apartment. I can try to do both, but it would be like the thief-takers to lurk nearby to try to identify wanted people who were connected to her. I've kept my nose pretty clean lately, but you never know. If her head was really torn off, I'm not sure I'm up for seeing that."

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Dot

I posted the text of the newspaper accounts in the campaign header, so you can reference them more easily. There is also a link to the city map. A second map link shows the markers indicating where the first five murders took place. I'll soon have a map link showing the characters in the theater, although I don't expect there to be any need for it right away. I just want to make sure the map works so when there is melee, I will know how to set it up. Please try to access the map and see if you can move your character around. I'll put a link to the local map in my GM header for easy access.

At the end of the meeting in the Mended Drum (See here for the role playing of the characters who met there) Qat invites everyone to meet at the City Pantheon Theatre first thing in the morning. There was a performance the night before, so no one is in the place for the first few hours of daylight and the group has the stage to themselves, although if they want more privacy, there are some prop rooms they can use.

Qat waits by a side entrance and lets people in after they give a knock with 3 long pauses, 3 short pauses, and 2 long pauses between. Once everyone arrives, she locks the door and joins you. She has collected newspapers (sometimes called 'libels') with accounts of the murders, provided by the bartender of the Mended Drum. Once everyone has had a chance to look them over, Qat says, "Suggestions as to how we can identify and stop the Black Fog Killer?"

I'll post some info on what characters already know about the names mentioned in the articles later tonight or tomorrow.

Rolls for Knowledge (Local) regarding people named in the newspaper articles connected with the first five murders. Be sure to read the post in the discussion board about these rolls.

Heifestus Taketis

Carter Wedgewood

Annice Taketis

Ludwig Chrysostom

Festus Warwick

Owain Biggleswade

Gianaconia Boatwright

Malinda O’Neele

Look under your character's spoiler for what he/she knows about these characters, if anything.

Magenta Prism: +2 Perform: Percussion for the day, gives +2 Intimidate and Handle Animal.

Einar, up with the breaking of the first light before Dawn, having slept in the small boat he had moored down in the Docks, briefly stops for a quick bite to eat on the way to City Pantheon Theatre.

I can't remember if I had previously decided to sleep in an Inn or not, erring on this side, after reviewing the prior posts, I found these For reference: Ships Boat with 1 Month Mooring and Taxes. per page 1 of the old recruitment/gameplay, 15% of 500gp per month. mooring and fee's, aka 75gp."

He arrives just after true light of Dawn starts to light up the city, and "quietly" thunks around the outside of the Theatre, wondering to himself if he was the first to arrive.

Stealth, Untrained: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (4) - 1 = 3
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27

Seeing no one mysteriously hanging around, he slowly approaches the side door, knocks quietly in the agreed on pattern, and waits. While he waits he quietly manifests Conceal Thoughts, and refocuses.

After a couple moments he decides he's too early, and finds a quiet corner to wait, and watch, outside until he see's signs of life from Qat's arrival, and approaches again, and gains entry.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

Murder! Murder! So far...
We met at the Mended Drum and discussed finding the killer.

Qat invited us to meet at the City Pantheon Theatre the following morning to plan.
The theatre is located on Portugal Street, just south of Lincoln Inn Fields.
We followed Qat's instructions to gain entry, and are now gathered onstage, pouring over newspaper articles related to the recent murders.

Qat tells us a bit about her murdered friend, and asks,
"Suggestions as to how we can identify and stop the Black Fog Killer?"

Norman shares some version of the following thoughts:

Izzy murmurs in response, still scanning the various articles.

"Hmmm. I don't know. But, who to interview first...?"

After a couple moments he decides he's too early, and finds a quiet corner to wait, and watch, outside until he see's signs of life from Qat's arrival, and approaches again, and gains entry.

Einar notices no one about. The theater is lively with folks so long as there is a performance going on, but mostly avoided by anyone looking for handouts or easy victims when unoccupied. The theater staff tend to keep an eye on things when rehearsals are going on.

Qat opens the door a minute or so later and notices Einar. When she learns he knocked earlier, she apologizes but said she had to go to the little bard's room. She ushers him inside the empty theater and encourages him to make himself comfortable. She'll send the others to him when they arrive and then lock the door and join everyone herself. Or she says he can stay and chat with her.

Don't worry too much about the ship. If, however, you want to use it to navigate the river, we'll need to look at the crew needed to do that. There are water taxis that can be hired to take people across the river or up or downstream. The river is somewhat tricky to navigate, particularly crossing between the starlings of London Bridge, where the current can be tricky and can slam a poorly navigated boat into the bridge supports or starlings.

The theatre is working on a new production that has some elaborate sets. Onstage at the moment is a large replica of a volcano with a mechanism for causing glowing material to ooze up from the top. There are also some pulleys and cables that can cause an actor to appear to fly. Behind the stage are some sound effects devices for generating the sounds of thunder, etc.

Kelendia walks down the road coming from the north, and finds herself before the large front of the theater, and pauses a moment to take in the grandeur of the building in the early morning light. The throb from last night's 'medicine' had already faded, and the early grey morning seemed cheery somehow, a feeling that Kelendia absorbed on her way around the building to the door. Secret knock delivered, Kelendia enters and moves to the newspapers, and begins reading.

It was a good sign that her companions were up early. There were many who would gladly stay up late, but those who rose with the sun were few, and disciplined.

Qat welcomes Kelendia into the backstage area of the theater, points out the papers and says, "Still waiting for Norman. I'll wait by the door a while longer and then join you."

While Qat waits by the door, she taps out the door knock rhythm with her feet, using the taps more like a percussion effect than a dance step. She does this relatively softly, so as not to disturb the rest of the group. After a few repetitions, she begins doing variations and syncopations. This goes on for quite a while.

Rae knocks on the door, thinking how long it has been since she's been privy to a secret of such a degree. She smiles, noting how good it feels to be back in the game. With her rapier at her hip once again, she felt ready to take on the world. 'Certainly easier than teaching.' She thinks, though finds herself missing it in some ways. It was a different part of her mind that was active now - one that had been long sleeping.

As Qat leads her backstage, Rae thinks about how different it feels. Shaping the minds of tomorrow to be better, versus trying to actively rid the world of an evil. Still, when she sees the volcano prop, she feels a touch of sadness, missing her students in the way a parent might miss their children.

After consulting the newspapers in silence, Rae begins to pace around the room, talking primarily to herself, but occasionally raising her voice, in the rhetoric typical of a professor who isn't asking you the answer, but is asking you to think about how you can find out.

"If Annice witnessed the attack on her father...husband...whatever..., we should interview her, loath as I am to say that. It may give us more insight into the killer. She describes him as a demon, which is obviously not helpful. And I assume not accurate, but it may be she remembers enough for one of us to make a composite sketch." She pauses, frowning. "Still, the girl has always struck me as a dumb socialite. It's possible that she's just trying to get added attention."

"Frankly, it's the others that I'm more interested in. Ludwig may have been an eccentric, but he was a genius, and wouldn't have been caught dead in an alley - if you'll pardon the expression. What I mean is there was no reason I can think of for him to be there. Perhaps we should try retracing his steps."

Rae nods at Qat's notes about Gianaconia "Indeed - I never met the girl, but I've heard about some of the heists she pulled off. Truly exceptional. It had been one of my dreams to work with her one day." Rae frowns, thinking about the multitude of changes she'd made to her life that had made that impossible. Another abandoned dream. Another unrealised reality. "It doesn't sit right with me at all that a thief would avoid detection and arrest for so long only to be murdered in her bed like a common whore."

Scratching her head and then tucking her bangs behind her ear, Rae stops walking and looks at the others. "A Preacher, a Philosopher and Inventor, a Clerk and a Prostitute, and a Thief. While the reports suggest that this... thing... could easily have killed witness, it didn't. And nothing was stolen from the victims. And it even went after Gianaconia in her home. Which means that whatever we're dealing with, it's targeting people."

"Where I come from, there's a practice of gathering eclectic talents, and Delving into forgotten Ruins and Barrows, such a group as this, would have made a strong such team of Raiders. Perhaps they worked together at some point in the past? Perhaps they didn't work directly, but shared a common thread. Perhaps they shared a rival. It would be interesting to find out if any of these used to partake of such a task..."

Yes, I could easily be way off beat, but ... a Cleric, Wizard, Alchemist and Rogue walk into a bar... The other two could easily have been front line team members, or just as easily the entire line up could be ranged/casters. Inspiration courtesy of Rae's last post.

Now that everyone is here, Qat drifts over to listen to the conversation. To Einar, she asks, "You're suggesting the victims were adventurers, perhaps, or had formed some similar alliance for a common goal? There are many so-called Clubbs in London these days. Just about any common interest can be the inspiration for one. But this seems a weird collection. While my friend and I were part of an adventuring group who delved into ruins well away from London, I know her pretty well and I don't think she would have anything to do with the likes of these other victims, except perhaps the prostitute. She did like ... being with ... other women." The last sentence stirs some memory in Qat and she turns away, wiping her eyes.

"What's not to like?" Rae remarks, with a grin, looking sidelong at Qat. Without waiting for a response she continues, "Their being an adventuring party together is an interesting thought. A clerk, though? I'd dare say that a common enemy sounds more accurate. Something else that these people share is that they are prone to secrets."

She frowns. "At any rate, we won't get far sitting here talking - we need to investigate. Where do we go first?"