Karri is not impressed with the accusation of 'screwing up'. "Marshall Kroft. It seems to me that you want to lay the guilt for Gaekhen's murder at our feet. Did we wield the blade? Did we order the assassination? No. We did not do this thing. Tragic though it is, we cannot be blamed. As for leaving dangerous criminals on the street, mayhap we could have slain these men before." She pauses, and looks Kroft dead in the eye. "Or would you have us be a tool to terrorize your fair city? We could bring sword and flame to everything that threatens your order. But I will not. Given the chance, we have to be greater than that. It is easy to frighten the people. I will strive to bring justice to your city, after all, it deserves that. There are too many people in Korvosa that deserve to live their quiet lives."
She turns to Thousand Bones, "We do not know each other, but it seems we can agree that slaughter for its own sake does not bring about peace. May as well make the world a desert an call that stability. I think my friends agree, we will ensure that Gaekhan's body is recovered. For me, I will do this because you asked me to. Thank you for respecting our ways and not insisting on violence as a first answer."
Karri smiles that familiar thin smile and lets the Legion run riot in her head, We can go kill?! The resounding cheering is so loud, the scarred girl is sure it can be heard into the room. Yes, my friends, we will hunt.
"No, but we let them go. At least some responsibility goes to us. We could have brought them in. We're making this right." Demitri leaves, taking Nadia with him, and finding Majenko along the way to see if the little dragon could hang out with her for the time being.
Majenko is hanging around the Citadel, napping in a patch of sunlight atop a training dummy. He's a little confused when Demitri wakes him up, but when he asks him to play with Nadia for today, the little pseudodragon perks up considerably.
<Yepyep! Wouldlove to! YesYes!>
Ortik's easy smile fades as Thousand-Bones relates his tale, and the dwarf realizes his role in the death of the Shoanti's grandson. "Let us say I were to drop a stone from the top of the Citadel," he says quietly, his voice a soft rumble. "It gathers speed as it falls, and strikes a man walking by on his way home from his daily labor. He dies instantly from the blow. Am I not responsible in some way for that man's death?" He glances towards the Shoanti. "We both want the same thing, friend - a blood feud between your quah and the cityfolk serves nothing but senseless slaughter. I spoke words of forgiveness to both of these men, hoping they would use their second chance to change their paths. They chose to spit in my face. They will be found, and they will not find my tongue counseling mercy this time."
Thousand-Bones gives Ortik a nod of understanding. "It is a feeling I know all too well." Though he doesn't let it show on his face, his tone has a trace of bitterness.
Once the party departs, Marius takes the lead. The group is led away from Citadel Volshyenek, across the High Bridge and into East Shore. The young noble is quiet during the trip, shuffling along like a guilt-ridden man.
The crime scene comes into view--it's a side street off East High Street, near a section of the city wall. Several Korvosan Guardsmen have surrounded the scene, some of them inspecting the buildings before the wall and others canvassing the neighbourhood looking for more evidence.
One of the guardsmen, Private Simon Clay, approaches the party. His uniform practically hanging off his gaunt frame. His brown hair is messy, his jaw is covered with a scraggly beard and his eyes are reddened--he looks like he hasn't slept in weeks. It's a surprising contrast to the overweight Taldan guardsman he once was.
"There you are. Come on--Corporal Griggs is waiting for ya." He says in a tone that is both exhausted and irritated.
As the party walks to the crime scene, Lyla hangs in the back, and speaks to Demitri and Ortik out of Marius Ornelos' earshot. "At least the last we 'forgave' someone, we still handed him over to Kroft...", she says, making a reference to Devargo Barvasi's capture.
Lyla is surprised to see Private Clay in such poor form. "Wow, sewer patrol duty doesn't seem to be doing you any good! Are you sure you're ok?", she asks incredulously.
Nalun walks behind the Corporal, warily eyeing his surroundings.
"Just peachy, darling." Clay grumbles at Lyla, turning on his heel and leading the team over to the wall.
Corporal Griggs is standing with a pair of Guardsmen, speaking with the two of them. "...well, check the surrounding neighbourhood again. There's gotta be more than one leatherhead here who saw something. I don't give a s**t if the vic's a Shoanti--puttin' folks in the dead-book before old age takes 'em away will not go unpunished, no matter what--"
"SIR! They're here!" Clay calls out, catching the Varisian's attention. Griggs waves the guards off and turns to the approaching party.
"Alright. Private, good job. On your way." He nods at Clay, who glowers at everyone before walking off.
Griggs watches him leave with a look of concern on his face before turning back to the team. "Kroft's briefed you on this, right?"
Indeed. Nalun says nodding to the Guardsman. Have you found anything of note?
Griggs nods. "So far, we've found signs of a struggle that ended with one dead Shoanti kid."
He gestures to a spot on the city wall. A dark bloodstain flecked with what appears to be dead skin mars the otherwise spotless brickwork. There's some trampled grass and dirt around the stain. "So far, all we have to go on is that and a noble's eyewitness testimony." He glances at Marius, who looks away.
"I'd tell ya more, but I'm saddled with supervising these sods." He gestures to the other guardsmen at work. "At least they're smart enough not to dirty up a crime scene."
"Think ya could take a look around, see what else you can turn up?"
Demitri will check for tracks of particular note. "If someone wants to talk to the witness, I'll examine the crime scene."
Nalun will attempt to find the witness and question him about the events.
You find a witness willing to talk to you--a rotund, simple-looking man. "Uh? Yah... uh, I saw everythin'... two guys found a tattooed guy an' beat the piss outta him. Smashed his head against the wall at least a dozen times!" He waves his arms and gestures wildly.
The crime scene is mostly untouched--it appears Griggs' earlier statement was accurate. The soft ground under your feet bears tracks of two people and several spots of disturbed earth, as if someone was dragged through the area.
Blood can be seen in the dragged parts of the tracks, which seem to lead to the High Bridge...
Names. Or at least Descriptions of those committing the act. Nalun replies
As they travel, Ortik walks briskly to keep pace with Karri. "I think there's more going on here," he says as they walk towards the crime scene. "Thousand-Bones said that his grandson spoke of building bridges between Korvosa and the quahs, and his death will spark talks of action on both sides. But that's not the worst of it. Somehow, something is blocking his magics from finding the body. If it was just a mugging or even a racially-motivated attack, what's the point of expending mystic energy to hide a body? How do we combat that magic? And, most importantly, who benefits from war with the Shoanti?"
Once they arrive at the crime scene, Ortik starts canvassing the crowd with Nalun. "These two men, could you describe them? And what did they do after the deed were done?"
"They dragged the body to High Bridge."
The man pauses, resting a hand on his flabby chin in thought. "Uh... one of 'em was really tall. Looked like he had some orc blood in him. Smacked the poor guy around with a flail, laughing his green ass off the whole time. I didn't get a good look at his face--I was too busy runnin' like Asmodeus himself was after me."
"The other guy had really close-cut hair--he was dressed up in some kinda chain mail and toting around a hammer. He was the smarter one of the two--kept tellin' the giggler to hurry up." He wrings his hands together. "When they were done, they started draggin' the Shoanti's body away. I... I think they were goin' across the High Bridge."
"High Bridge? It seems we're back to the same place once more."
The trail goes across the High Bridge and continues onward into the city.
This corroborates what we know already. Do you know anything more you wish to add before we leave? Korvosa thanks you for your assistance.
"Jes' one more thing..." The fat man scratches his head. "The hammer-luggin' one said somethin' about gettin' to the Potter's Ward... don't know why he'd want to go there, of all places."
"They went back into the city. Why wouldn't he want to go to Potter's ward?"
Not sure, but he might have allies there, or even live there.
"Potter's would be easy to hide and no-one cares who you are there." Karri shrugs. "But then again, we have a vagrant diplomat and a way with people. Two armored thugs may have drawn the wrong attention."
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Ortik winces as Karri mentions Potter's Ward. "I'd forgotten the real name of the place," he says quietly. "I've buried more than a few friends in the place. We always thought it was bad luck to speak the name of the place, else you wind up there faster than you expected. Sonsguard - that's what we called it. But you're right, Karri. Those two will probably attract attention."
"Then we should hurry."
With Demitri's expertise and the man's directions, the party follows the trail across the High Bridge. On the return trip, they begin to notice small oddities in the stone bridge--a piece of torn clothing caught on the side of the bridge, darkened bloodstains, and scuff marks off to the sides of the main walkway all mark the passage of their quarry through this way. The pace the party was going en route to the crime scene must have kept them from noticing them.
The trail takes a left from Eodred's Walk, and diverts through several alleys before emerging at the intersection of Shrouded Way and Last Way. A series of footprints and drag marks lead the party through the grand stone archway that opens up into the Grey District.
In stark contrast to the civil unrest plaguing the rest of Korvosa, the Grey District is quiet and calm. It is not a calm that promotes peace of mind... rather, it is more like the graveyard is preparing itself for a vast influx of new dead. There's not a soul to be found here during the day--they're usually in the great temple to Pharasma at the west end of the district.
The trail hugs the wall of the district, going south through a set of disturbed bushes. A rather large bloodstain coupled with a noticeable depression in the ground seems to indicate that a body was briefly dropped there...
It appears that further investigation is needed.
Here lies Gartaman Raelk
Father to bereaved sons
Husband to a widowed wife
Demitri puts his skills to the test again.
"Now, which way did they go?"
Nalun will assist Demitri with the tracking See here, the trail turns west
Nalun will also inspect the bloodstained ground.
Upon closer inspection of the area, Demitri & Nalun are able to determine that the tracks wander a bit to the west before sharply cutting back to the south-east, deeper into the district.
There's something odd about the trail as well... Nalun notices that the footprints they've been following have been joined by several smaller ones, each bearing only four toes.
Somethings not right here, our bad guys were met by unknown four toed others. This is not a simple street mugging....
As the group begins searching around, Ortik stops as he notices the gravestone before him. He places a hand on it, and bows his head in silent prayer. Forgive me for involving you, friend. If it makes your soul rest any easier, Lamm is no more. Your family is beyond his reach, now and forever.
He remains in silent prayer for a time, oblivious to the tracks of the four-toed assailants.
"These tracks were made by Derro. Related to dwarves, though they are inherently insane. This just got complicated."
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"Insane? So we have experience with this?" Karri smirks as she follows the boys in the cemetery.
"Basically, yes."
Demitri's mention of the deep dwarves snaps Ortik from his reverie. "Derro? What the hell are they doing this close to the surface?" He quickens his pace to catch up to the group.
Lyla follow quietly for a change, a little upset about with the crime scene. People can be really screwed up, she thinks picturing Giggles. The burtyality of the murder definetely has his signature all over it. Hanging in the back with Ortik, Lyla trusn to the dwarf, who seems to always have a word of wisdom to spare, and asks "Does it always have to end in death?". The graveyard setting lends an unintended ambiguity to the question, and she quickly tries to be more specific. "I mean, I sure wanted Lamm dead, but after we did it... it didn't magically erase all the memories. That's why I didn't wanna kill Devargo after that. Now, here we are again, going after the bad guys and... I don't wanna kill them either, but if it comes to that, well, should I?"
A few feet away, Nalun and Demitri start talking about some four-toed creatures. "Derros? Never heard of them. But there's still more of us than of them, right? Let's keep moving, I got a promise to keep," the halfling says, eager to find the criminals and get the whole ordeal over with.
Ortik's quiet for a few moments after Lyla finishes speaking. The dwarf seems to be choosing his words carefully. "I don't like killing either, my friend. I don't like what it does to people. The moment you can take someone's life is the moment you cheapen it. I'm not sure what we should do with these two once we find them. We could take them back to the Citadel and let them throw the book at them, see what sticks. Probably be hanging from a noose in a week at that. We could give them to Thousand-Bones. It was his grandson that they murdered, so he could claim some tribal right to their lives. Killing them ourselves might be a mercy, in that case." He sighs, leaning heavily on Raelk's tombstone. "Our actions have consequences. I should have known that when we let them go. All I know now is that we can't let them go again. They will kill again if we do, and I don't want that on my conscience."
"I disagree about the cheapening the persons life. If someone dies in battle defending their country or a loved one, that death does the opposite. Someone once told me that a good is its own reward. We should bring the pair back to Kroft for trial. Even if they don't seem like they deserve it, the people need to know that there are consequences for their actions and that there are people willing to find justice for them. I do agree that they are not escaping again, no matter what."
Nalun listens to Ortik and Demitri wax philosophical on Death. He thinks People earn their just desserts. These two earned theirs. and he resolves himself to do what is necessary.
The party follows the footprint trail into the Potter's Ward of the Grey District.
The Potter's Ward is the final resting place for many of Korvosa's poor, and it shows--the ground under the party's feet turns lumpy and uneven, and the walls turn black where grey stone once stood. Thousands upon thousands of names are carved into the walls--apparently, the entire ward is one mass grave. A cold wind blows through the district, sending a few leaves tumbling across the barren earth.
The trail leads up a set of plain stone steps to a mausoleum, its carved stone door slightly ajar.
Demitri will walk up and sneak a peek inside.
The interior of the mausoleum is lit only by the sunlight streaming in from the open door. The trail goes down the steps to a chamber lined with several alcoves containing bodies wrapped up in linen cloth...
...and seems to vanish.
Standing under Demitri's legs, Lyla also peeks inside the Mausoleum to make sure there are no signs of an ambush.
Lyla's keen eyes don't find any traps... but she does pick up where the trail left off.
A set of scuff marks on the floor lead to one of the alcoves, where a cloth-wrapped body has been hastily thrown aside. A crude stone trapdoor is in the floor here.
Ortik peers into the mausoleum's gloom as well, his dwarven eyes giving him a natural advantage against the darkness.
Nalun moves forward as Lyla points out the trail, he moves forward trying to hear or see anything.
Karri has been quiet since the party entered the graveyard. Legion however, has not. The constant excited chattering keeps her focus inward, not outward where it might be more useful.
The trapdoor appears to be safe to open. As the party opens the trapdoor, they discover a set of earthen stairs descending into the darkness...