"Hmm," Tyari responds non-committally. "Still, Brantos, from now on, we ought definitely to be on guard for any agents of evil in town. I suppose," she offers with a wry smile, "even if you were to spy an indisputably evil aura, your testimony wouldn't be admitted as evidence in a court of law in Trunau as it would back home."
"As would only be fair," the paladin succumbs graciously, "as it would be merely my own word as to the aura I saw. In Lastwall, my evidence could be corroborated by officers of the court. Here, an unscrupulous person might abuse such power, knowing no one else is likely to gainsay him. Still, with Marikal here on the posse comitatus," he slaps the cleric on the shoulder heartily, "I can at least report my findings to him and know that he will follow up by investigating my lead and uncovering such evidence as is admissible to the local authorities."
Vhailor looks up and smiles at Alicia, regardless of what he might have overheard he plays it close to the chest "So.... what news?"
Ali shakes her head at Vhailor and half-unsheathes the blade Ruby gave her. The blade is rusty and pitted; obviously not a hopeknife. "Seems like someone stole her hopeknife last night when we were playing in that three-legged race."
"I can at least report my findings to him and know that he will follow up by investigating my lead and uncovering such evidence as is admissible to the local authorities."
Marikel forces a smile.
"Maybe you'd like to take a look at the councillors. One of them was seen talking to this half-orc. It could have been innocent, but I think it likely the murderer had an accomplice. There's a lot happening for just one person to be behind it all. And while Kerst was hit from behind, I wouldn't have wanted to face him on my own."He turns to Tyari and his smile softens.
"If that will be all, ma'am, I'd better check up on the others."
Brantos frowns in consternation. "Which --? No, you're right, of course: it's best not to voice such suspicions unless they are proven. To sow distrust in the lawful authorities is to invite anarchy. I shall approach the councillors without bias and breathe not a word to the citizenry."
Tyari nods. "We are in a sensitive position. If there are accusations to be made against the rulers of Trunau, they ought not to originate from us. It would only exacerbate the townsfolk's suspicion that we pose some sort of threat to their sovereignty." She turns back to Marikel. "Any and all information must be reported to the Chief Defender. She and the reliable members of the Council are in the position to mete out justice, in this instance." She smiles. "I'm sure you'll do the right thing. May the Inheritor guide your investigation. And, of course, if there is any help we can offer, you have only to ask."
Vhailor brightens and smiles "Good news then eh? C'mon lets see what Marikel's up to."
"So adult enough to use the knife for it's intended purpose but not adult enough to risk hurting her feelings." turning his head back down and unto his whittling as Banny closes her eyes.
His answer to the following question is given as a reflex without thinking "Kerst." before a beat passes and he sees reason for more of an explanation "I'd made a poppet of Roddy... showed him yesterday and he asked whether I'd made his brother... so I'm making him" some sense of weighty emotion almost breaking through the veil and facade at least in fleeting fashion before he adds as an afterthought "Once he's finished I'll get onto the ghost rats..." and that particular train of conversation abruptly halted by an opening door.
Banny frowns to herself at Vhailor's first words, opening her mouth to respond then closing it instead. It don't matter what someone who ain't a part of Trunau thinks of the reality of life here, and it ain't her job to try and teach it, either. She looks instead at the little wooden puppet. Woodcarving's not the most practiced art among dwarves, but crafting is crafting. She watches a few seconds in silence, until that door opens and Alicia emerges.
Banny gets to her feet eagerly enough, for the stone floor's cold, as she listens to Alicia's words.
"Well, nothin' we din't sorta guess at, but 's good to have it confirmed anyhow. Yeah, I reckon we'd better go find the padre."
Banny knows where to find the head priestess's residence; as she is leading the others in that direction, they meet Marikel heading back toward the room the girls share.
Marikel seems lost in thought when he encounters the others but he acknowledges them quickly enough.
"How's Ruby? Is she okay? Is it her hopeknife? Was she pleased to get it back?"
He continues to stride towards the exit.
Ali blinks at Marikel. "Got me. I know the one in her sheath isn't a hopeknife, though," she replies, half-unsheathing the rusty, pitted blade.
Banny pats at her belt where the actual hopeknife in question still is. "Didn't know we were plannin' on givin' it back to her just yet," she says with a brow arched at the other two. "I mean, 's evidence, innit? Thought we ought to hold onto it for a bit. 'Course, I guess we could always come back for it if we had a need to, to show it to Halgra or somethin'."
Marikel stops suddenly and turns to Alicia with narrowed eyes. He glances down at the blade that she unsheathes but any words he was going to say are interrupted by Banny.
Marikel ponders for a second. "It is evidence. But if we're not going to use it for anything else, Ruby may want it back. I think we should ask her. Both whether it's hers and if she'd mind looking after it for us."
He glares at Alicia. "If she's still upset she may appreciate being shown that we still trust her."
Marikel diverts towards Ruby and Alicia's room.
Shrugging, Vhailor tucks away the bit of half-formed wood and trundles along behind Marikel.
Ali gives Marikel an utterly confused look in response to his glowering. With a shrug, she follows after him as he turns around.
Marikel leads the way back to Alicia and Ruby's room, where the newest citizen of Trunau is still moping inside on her bed.
Banny digs out the wrapped-up knife. "Hey there, Ruby," she says. "We got somethin' of yours, least I think we do... here's th' thing, though, it's been used in some bad business. Looks like whoever nicked it from you left it around to suspicion up some things the wrong way. Anyhow, can you confirm this is your knife?"
She shows the blade. Something is nagging at her about this, though, and Banny stares at the wall of the simple room, trying to mull it over.
"...I still can't reckon why they went to the trouble, though," she says, half to herself, after a little pause. "I mean, Kerst... he should have had his own knife, when he got... jumped, or, or hurt. Or whatever happened, however they-- got him. Why go to th' trouble to steal a different one to plant? Either they needed his knife for... somethin', though I can't think what, or they wanted... to get Ruby in trouble, mayhap?"
"Yes!" Ruby cries happily, seizing the knife. "I mean...," she tries to temper her reaction in relation to the dwarf's serious mood, "it's a new hopeknife. I guess it's mine. Who else has one? Zola Sawyer was the last to get hers, and that was a couple of months ago."
Ali's eye twitches at the mention of the Sawyer girl, but she remains silent.
Vhailor listens and nods appreciatively, musing on timelines "It's a bit chicken and the egg isn't it? Did they take the knife before they killed Kerst, or did they kill Kerst before they took the knife..." furrowing brow in thought before shrugging "Spose it matters and doesn't... as we still need to find the bad guy."
Carbonel is unable to fully relax on Vhailor's shoulder, the real estate available preventing the cat from splaying out to rest... however he seems languid enough.
Marikel smiles at Ruby's reaction but hides his mirth before he speaks.
"Banny's right. We're going to find who stole it from you and we may need to borrow your hopeknife again later. Look after it for us while we investigate and let us know if you find any clues or remember who might have took it. Don't tell anyone what's going on. Like Banny said, there's been some bad business. Be careful."
He turns to the others.
"Let's go."
Banny nods at Marikel's words, still musing over the riddle of the knife as she follows the Iomedan out the door. Through the vague hangover she's still nursing, she remembers Roddy's theory... but the timing of things seems strange to her, and why would Kerst have fought with his knife if his other weapons were at hand...?
Perhaps it's nothing. Banny resolves to think about it more, maybe with the aid of some brain-lubrication-juice, the more flammable the better.
But for now... "So," she says back in the sunlight, shading her eyes with her hand. "We trippin' down to them tunnels, or gettin' permissions, or what?"
"There's rumors that there are ghost rats down there," Alicia says to Banny.
Banny grins crookedly. "'Zat so? I wonder if you could make ghost ke-babs outta them, then."
Her smile fades. "But I don't care if there's a whole ghostin' army down there if that's where we'll find some justice for Kerst. Ghosts can't touch you, just whisper an' scream an' such."
It should be noted Banny is not an expert on religion.
Overhearing Alicia, Vhailor takes her at her word "Really! Awesome... if we can we should find some... I don't know what they look like and I'm meant to make some for Rodrick."
"Well, come along then. We're going to find the place where Kerst was found. We'll search around for any clues that might have been missed. The patrol were just retrieving their fallen friend, they weren't investigating a murder. They may have missed something important. And then we can look for any tunnels down there."
Marikel mutters less convincingly, "It'll be safer to enter the tunnels from ground level."
Vhailor nods solemnly, preparing to search for juice.
The group leaves the mission and heads back through the front gates. The market at the Barterstones has been fully set up now, and a handful of shoppers are picking through the available produce as the party passes by. The late-winter ground is dry and tufted with dead grass, but the handcart in which the corpse was trundled back into town has left a rut that should be easily-enough followed back to the place where the body was loaded.
It's a deceptively long jaunt around the base of Bloodmarch Hill. Once the Barterstones are blocked from sight, one begins to feel in the middle of nowhere; despite the physical proximity of the town, the fact that one is separated from it vertically rather than horizontally makes it seem farther away, should danger appear. The western side of the cliff is particularly well pock-marked with old mineshafts, being most directly beneath the Sawyer home; some have collapsed in rubble, others are boarded up in a half-hearted bow toward safety, and yet others yawn, dark and forbidding on the side of the hill that has yet to feel the morning sun.
The party has passed the lower watchtower by the Hopespring and the higher one in the Upper Quarter before reaching the point behind the Longhouse. Only yards away, sunlight stretches across the badlands, warming the exposed stones and casting crisp and intricate shadows of the tufts of dead brush, but the ground they intend to search is cold from the long night and still in the shadow of the hill.
Banny is silent for the long walk down, turning things over in her head. It'd be a long haul to get a corpse (Kerst's corpse, her mind whispers) down here, if he was killed up in town. And if he was killed down here-- well, what the heck was he doin' out here at night, how'd they get him down here? Coaxed him with somethin'?
She gives the cliff-face a sullen look as they the chill area where the body was found. In her mind, the open mouths of the pits that dot the cliff are like yawning mouths, taunting her with questions.
She diverts her attention from that to the rocky ground and strands of dead grass. Lookin' for tracks seems mayhap useless-- lots of feet came down here with the cart to grab the body-- but... she looks anyway.
She devotes especial attention the cliff wall that stretches right above them, with some vague thought that maybe, maybe, if Kerst was killed topside, they mighta smuggled his body down through the tunnels.
Marikel mutters a short prayer to Iomedae. He tries not to trample the site, but looks around warily.
Once they reach the ground where the body was found Carbonel hops down from Vhailor's shoulder to the earth. Stretching out his shoulders he watches Marikel and Banny... as they seem to know what they are doing... and respectfully pantomines similar facial expressions and actions to make it appear as though he is also chewing the scene.
As Banny fears, apart from the ruts of the cart's wheels, few marks were left behind on the hard, dry ground. There are prints of booted feet in the area, but that's as likely to be the search party sent out by the Patrol as it is to be a gang of murderers; there's certainly no evidence to which she can point as proof of a crime.
It's fairly simple to tell where the cart was loaded, the place where its wheels began to press more heavily into the ground with the weight of a strong young half-orc in it. It's just north of the tip of the promontory behind the Longhouse, some thirty-five feet west of the loose scree and fallen rocks at the base of the cliff. With careful examination, dried blood is evident in a tuft of dead grass, where Kerst's head must have rested before he was lifted into the cart.
Vhailor grows a mite quiescent and moves over to be near to Carbonel, almost as though as a protective measure... though it's unsure which of the two parties is providing comfort to the other. The cat for his part narrows it's eyes and it's hair stands half on end. The gnome doesn't fidget, doesn't natter, and doesn't push his lensless glasses back up the ridge of his nose... instead he stands slightly hunched and grips his staff tight enough that thin lines of white show through on his knuckles.
Seeing nothing in the immediate area but lots of bare, packed earth and what is probably Patrol-and-townsfolk boots, Banny leans her head back and scratches with her thumbnail at the scar that zags across her face.
"'m gonna look closer over to the base of the cliff," Banny announces with a gesture of her chin. "If whoever did this was usin' these tunnels, there might be some sign there that ain't been trampled to death yet."
She walks thataway, careful to look at the ground below her feet before each step so she doesn't cover up some clue, and squinting at the scree and rocks, and into the dark tunnel mouths.
"An excellent idea. Look for blood. This isn't the place where Kerst died."
Marikel looks up at the cliffs and shudders before following Banny towards the rockface. He stays alert for tunnels and tracks.
Banny deliberately starts toward Bloodmarch Hill, pausing between every step to look for evidence of passage. She finds nothing of note until she reaches the band of fallen rock and dirt at the very base of the cliff; here she is almost sure she can see a few booted footprints in the looser soil and a fist-sized piece of stone that has been dislodged from the cavity it's been nestling in for some time. Someone has passed through here, but it's a long way from saying that to proving whoever it was had anything to do with Kerst's death. And where might he have come from? She looks up at the cliff face in front of her, yawning with dozens of mouths. It would take hours, days to search them all, even with a sizeable percentage of the Patrol helping. She sees no signs of blood or of a body being dragged.
Looking up from below, she tries to pick out the ledge she climbed to and the narrow path she walked partway down; it stands to reason that if there's a tunnel that leads somewhere, it would be accessible from the secret pathway. There are several footpaths from ground level that lead up toward various mine shafts, but without following each one, there is no way to know which, if any, might lead to the artificially-widened ribbon of road.
Banny scratches at one ear, digging a stubby pinky finger inside and wiggling it as she squints upward.
"Somebody's been through here not too long ago-- I think these are tracks-- but who's to say it's got anything to do with Kerst? 's hard to tell which tunnels been used... and it could be all sorta folk usin' these tunnels... which still ain't a good thing. I don't like them bein' this open, who knows if they spill out in town?"
She turns back and shrugs one-handed. "Look, the only way to know we're on th' right track of the path our Mister Jumper took is to start where he started-- up there." She gestures, way up where the watchtower can just be seen peeking over. "But from down here... we'd be playin' at dice to luck out an' hit the right tunnel out of all these."
Ali groans. "Are you telling me after we went all the way down here, that we're going all the way back up there...just so we can get back down here again?"
Banny shrugs. "We came on down here to look at the ground where Kerst's body was. See if the folks that kilt him left some clue or track or somethin'. Don't seem to be much, so... yep, guess 's what I'm tellin' you."
Banny pauses a moment, gazing at the cliff face. "Or," she says, leaning a little closer, as if sharing a secret, "it could be that the tunnel we want, up there, don't come down here at all. Maybe it goes right to the Sawyers."
In clipped tones Vhailor nods "Right... up then... yes?"
Marikel frowns as he eyes the many tunnels.
"I fear, Miss Alicia, that unless your sharp eyes can determine from which of these tunnels Kerst's body was dragged, Banny may be right. Maybe you should have another look round. A good, hard look. Take your time."
Marikel's sense of urgency seems to have vanished. One might even think he was stalling.
Vhailor pales a little more at Marikel's suggestion they remain in situ for longer. Nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot he gabbles subvocally, shifting between languages recognizable and not... fragments of text harsh, melodic and confusing in sequence sound. Carbonel is similarly wary, not settling down - remaining with arched back and narrowed mismatched orbs towards the horizon away from the town.
Banny sideeyes Vhailor. "What's eatin' you?"
"Don't like it... feels wrong..." is the terse and concerned response from the gnome as he looks out towards the badlands "Like the rocks are watching..."
Ali quirks her mouth into a half-frown, then nods curtly. She takes a few steps forward into the scree and starts looking around for subtle clues about the way Kerst's body was taken.
Banny follows Vhailor's gaze out into the harsh, bleak rocky landscape. She shades her eyes with her hand, squinting at the barrens around them.
To the discomfort of the gnome and his cat, Alicia steps forward to examine the wall of the cliff. She begins at the base, where Banny quickly points her to the disturbed scree. Booted feet, like the Patrol, but it's hard to imagine why any of the search party looking for a body on the ground would have been up one of the footpaths. A medium-sized rock that had been sitting where it fell long enough that it was embedded in the dirt and gravel, now rolled over under the pressure of a step and leaving behind a bare recess. There's certainly no sign that a body was dragged through, but if Kerst was brought down this way, he could have been carried over the shoulders. That would mean a large and powerful frame, a description not at all inconsistent with the half-orc she saw with Councilor Sawyer last night.
While Alicia focuses on the details, Banny turns her attention to the big picture, letting her gaze roam across the badlands. The only movement she sees is the dry weeds and brush nodding in the chilly breeze and, in the distance, a few tumbleweeds bouncing across the uneven ground. She knows well how many hidden gullies and gulches there can be in such a vista and how deceptive the perspective can be in such a bare landscape, how what appears to be a nearby rock can in fact be a far-away boulder concealing a half-dozen scouts; still, she sees nothing that causes her any undue alarm. She concludes that, in the current circumstances, the gnome and his cat are a little overly suspicious. She has to admit, however, that, outside the palisade in the Hold of Belkzen, over-suspicious folk are more likely to survive than over-confident.
In the meantime, Alicia shifts her gaze upward to the honeycomb of caves and tunnels in the cliffside. The ones on the eastern side of Bloodmarch Hill were likely full of sunlight this morning, but the ones she is facing are dark, her ability to peer inside stopped cold mere inches from the openings. She spares a corner of her mind to the possibly-apocryphal ghost rats, not to mention more mundane hazards like feral dogs and Freedom Town thugs, comforting herself with the thought that Banny must have been able to see in and would have alerted them if anything were lurking. At least a half a dozen rudimentary footpaths start up the hill at various angles, leading to the various entrances; it's hard to tell from here which may dead-end or peter out and which, if any, may join up with the path Banny discovered near the top of the cliff. She spends some pain-staking time trying to trace the footpaths as far as she can see.
As her gaze nears the watchtower visible at the top of the cliff, the sun finally crowns the hill and ends the visual exercise, its light suddenly pouring down the cliff nearly blinding her as she turns her head away, blinking. Just as she's averting her gaze, however, she thinks she has seen something. Shading her eyes with her hand, she tries to find it again, squinting into the light. There it is: about three-quarters of the way up, something reflective sparkling in the sun near a cave opening. It's possible it's something natural, a large bit of exposed mica, perhaps ... but, no, it is something worth checking out; she's sure of it. It seems to be casting a slim shadow down the cliffside below it.
"A-ha!" Ali says triumphantly, and points toward a tunnel about three-quarters the way up the cliff-face. "See that cave there? There's something reflecting light up there--I think that's our lead."
Without prompting, she looks for the best way up to the cave opening in question (and once she's sure of it, starts heading that way).