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"Thieves, clowns, care-bears..." Helvetica ponders out loud. What sort of town is this Sheriff trying to keep hold of? Yikes!
"Okie-dokie, Jherizhana's tent looks like the best place to start to me. Nothing gets me shaking quite like a clown... Something just isn't right about them. Time for a clown hunt! It'll only be my third though, so don't judge if I make some rookie mistakes, yeah?"
Shortly after finishing your questions and reconvening inside the tent, Almara enters beside a burly man. She walks over to the slain priestess with hurried steps and shakes her head. "Go!" she orders the acrobat who brought you to the scene. "Go find the sheriff and bring her here!"
Turning her attention to you, she asks, "Have you had a chance to examine the scene?"
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Tibitz shuffles and looks at Almara with some concern in his voice,"This place is funny. No big tracks, but someone killed the priest-lady with something like claws. So maybe magic that change-shape or maybe it just someone who wants it to look like this lion-lady-bird made the priest-lady into an afternoon snack. Yes, yes... snack."
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"Yeah! No tracks! Kind of nuts if you ask me," Helvetica begins, pausing to make clear that she too wants fried butter. "Something all clawed like that should leave tracks, right? So some sort of summoning magic, or maybe someone normal sized who secretly has claws?!"
"But... What do you notice about the scene anyways? We heard a bunch of extra stuff too, like how clowns were gooning around Jherizhana's tent, a bunch of stuff got stolen today, and how this dead lady wanted to come see the Sphinx! Say, didn't that old lady's dead husband want to do the same thing?" she rambles.
"Aside from another dead person from the town circumstantially linked to my star attraction?" Almara asks. "I'm not much of an investigator. I believe that is what I hired you to do."
A moment later, Sheriff Feldane enters the tent, accompanied by the acrobat. "What's this about another body now?" she asks, scanning the room before making her way to the corpse. "Abadar's rusty keys! Our one priest in the whole town is dead? Murdered?"
She lets out a frustrated sigh and looks to you, asking, "Have you found any clues here?"
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"Actually ma'am, I think so," Zu suddenly pipes up after having stared very hard at the body for several moments. "Lookie at her wrists - see those marks? Those're like...rope marks, string marks, whatever. Like she was tied up before she was killed. But there ain't no rope shreds around that I've seen."
The leshy considers the implications. "So...it's kinda like mebbe she was tied up somewhere else and mebbe even killed somewhere else, then untied and dumped here."
"Hey, Sheriff...can you tell us anything much about Sister Esrelda? Some of your local folks told us a little bit but mebbe there's something else worth mentioning. Any enemies? Anyone been givin' her church trouble lately?"
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Helvetica points emphatically at Zu while he talks. First from the right, then leaning on the poor Leshy and jabbing the air by his face with her fingers from the left. She almost tries to raise him into the air, but decides against it when she remembers that few can handle the magnificence that is her raw, unbridled strength. This killer is kind of a sicko if Kingy here is right... Yikes! No more late nights or alone time in this town!
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Sheriff Feldane squats down to examine the corpse's wrists and ankles. "You're right," she says with a sigh. "Enemies? Who'd make an enemy of the only cleric in town? But with all that's been happening..."
She stands up suddenly and shouts, "Perry!"
The guard who escorted you to the Locked Box comes rushing into the tent. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Get some of the other guards and get to the temple," she orders him. Turning her attention back to you and Almara, she says, "A giant, lion-bodied sphinx isn't going to need to tie someone up before tearing them apart. I'll give you that. So things aren't adding up. But I've still got the problem that two prominent citizens have been murdered. I need to see the sphinx. Where is she right now? Why isn't she in that cage?"
The sheriff points her finger at the conspicuously empty large cage inside the tent.
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"That's, uh, a pretty good question too," Zu admits to Almara, wondering why neither he nor his companions had thought to ask about the sphinx's whereabouts. "Someone said they thought they saw some clowns hanging around here - that's not normal, right? Visitors and even other carnival folk don't get to hang around here when she's not performing, from what I heard."
Almara glances at the empty cage and then back to the sheriff with a sigh. "The merfolk has stumbled upon the truth of it," she confesses. "Jherizhana is not magically bound or compelled by me nor does she reside inside the cage. That is merely there to enhance the illusion of her danger to the audience while simultaneously allowing them to feel safe in viewing such an exotic being.
"In reality, she is a bard. She pretends to be a circus star who travels with us in order to see more of Avistan," Almara continues. "She spends her time during operating hours in a large, comfortable, private wagon of her own and enters the cage on performance days. She is accompanied by guards at all times to protect her boundaries."
The sheriff's face turns red as her clenches her jaw before releasing a stream of orders in a tone that fails to hide her anger, "You’ve brought a dangerous creature into this community—a creature you clearly cannot keep track of, let alone control. I can’t say I know for certain there’s wrongdoing here on the part of your people, but after a point it ceases to matter. For the safety of my town, I’m putting this circus under quarantine. I don’t want any of your people leaving these grounds unless it’s to leave town completely. I’m giving you two days to get packed up and go."
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"Now wait just a minute Sheriff!" Aurora exclaims with some consternation.
"You still don't have evidence that Jherizhana is dangerous at all! Madam Almara merely creates the illusion of danger as part of a show. Jherizana doesn't need 'controlling' any more than I do, and I assure you that I would never permit you or your town to control me, so why should you expect any different of a sphinx?
Expelling the circus is totally disproportionate and will only hinder out attempts to obtain justice for the dead. I urge you to reconsider!"
Otherwise we only have two days to find the where-bears and solve the case if we're going to get paid.
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"She has urges!" Helvetica adds passionately. "We can talk to her and see what she knows anyways! I've still clowns to hunt and urges to slake or something." What a buzz-kill, the Sphinx didn't even do nothing! The Sheriff is just grumpy that dead people keep showing up. It IS inconvenient to having a good time, BUT I'm not the one who has to get voted in next year.
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"Your opinions regarding my decision matter little to me," Sheriff Feldane says. "I've had to murders, a string of thefts, and a near riot in as little as two days since the carnival arrived. This is the only way I can prevent further violence and likely more deaths. Unless you can bring me conclusive proof of another perpetrator, the carnival must leave in two days."
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"So our job just got more urgent..." Zu muses aloud. "But hey, some beans work better under pressure, right? Maybe we can, too."
The leshy sets his little pumpkin mind to thinking about what they've learned.
"Okay, so...maybe there's something more personal that we've not found yet but so far it seems to me that someone's using you folks being in town as a cover to do a whole BUNCH of crimes," he points out. "Mainly stealing. Like, the shop got robbed while people were gone and a whole bunch of beans lost their coin purses today. Sheriff, did Sister Esrelda have anything missing? Did the church keep anything really important inside it?"
"I just found out Sister Esrelda was dead and just sent Perry off to see to the temple, so, I don't know yet," she says. "The temple held the sacrifices and donations people left as well as whatever the Sister needed to tend to people's ills. I hear she had a few scrolls that would probably be valuable to someone able to use them."
She sighs and says, "Now, I'm going to go join Perry at the temple. Don't touch the body. I'll be sending some men to collect her."
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"Ok, bye now!" Helvetica says, shooing the Sheriff away. "OK, SO! We know there is a thieves' guild around here, somewhere, so why don't we just find it? Everyone runs from the Sheriff because they know she is the Sheriff. Nobody knows we're part of the Path-Venture League of Super Finders, yet, so they'll just try to steal from us instead! That's a total win! But like after we talk to the Sphinxy Bard?"
"Alright," Almara says, sounding weary. "Pipin, could you take our investigators to the food tent while I summon Jherizhana from her leisure. Sphinxes can be so irritable when interrupted."
"Yes, of course," the acrobat says with an eager smile. "If you will follow me? I'm certain it won't be more than an hour for the mistress to convince the sphinx to join us! Plenty of refreshments while you wait!"
Filing back out of Jherizhana's performance tent, Pipin leads you across the carnival to a private tent where all manner of fried butter, biscuits, candied fruits, spun sugar (also known as candy floss), exotic fruit juices, spirits, pies (both meat and fruit varieties), little cakes, taffy, and toffy are spread across a table.
"Enjoy!" Pipin instructs.
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"An hour? Uh...Jherizhana sounds like quite an interesting sphinx-bean," Zu muses. Assuming that Pipin sticks around while they wait the leshy tries to glean a little more information about this strange and exotic being.
"So...anything we oughta know before we talk with Jherizhana?" Zu asks as he curiously nibbles at a fruit pie. "Any special sphinx customs or rituals we need to follow?"
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Helvetica sits next to Aurora and digs in as well. "Well, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on something I'm not, this time anyways, but if I thought I was important enough that it'd take an hour to bring me to a feast, I'd want us nobodies to treat me as such!" she speculates, pushing a small cake into her mouth and washing it down with a strong spirit.
Another carnival worker arrives in far less than an hour, likely much to Aurora's dismay, closer to a quarter of an hour. "The Mistress and Jherizhana are ready to meet with you now," the roustabout informs you.
Prying yourself away from the tempting buffet, you make your way back across the midway to the 'Sphinx's Lair.' The enormous gynosphinx lounges upon the piles of silk pillows strewn across the inside of the cage, her eagle wings tucked in close to her body. Cascades of long, dark hair are held back from her face by a gem encrusted, gold tiara, and the sphinx bears several shimmering pieces of jewelry. You also notice that the sheriff's men, presumably, have removed the body of the murdered cleric.
Almara stands outside of the cage, and beckons you to join her and sit upon the benches. "Wise and benevolent Jherizhana, our independent investigators seeking to prove your innocence wish to ask questions of you," she says with a bow and then steps back behind you.
"Oh? We're not doing the magical compulsion act? Very well," Jherizhana says with a rumbling undertone of a purr. "How can I help you to understand that I did not murder these poor, unfortunate souls of Ilsurian?"
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Helvetica prostrates herself before the Gynosphinx and bows several times. After the fourth time, she keeps her face on the floor and twists her torso until she can look up. "Was that enough times ma'am?"
When Jherizhana has decided the Ganzi has shown enough reverence, she hops back up. "Well, you know, I think the first order of business is to clear the air! We think you're innocent! There are some others 'round here though, they aren't quite sitting in the wagon. Er, I guess they'd have their own wagon, so they're sitting in a wagon just not our wagon. Where we hold the band... never mind." she rambles.
"Oh, right, clowns! We saw clowns! Do you know about clowns? I've a score to settle, but they also were seen been creeps around your tent! And do you maybe have an alibi or three? Also, many people who were known to want to come see you specifically are Petitioners now. I'm not sure how time works in the Boneyard, but they'll probably be there for a while if the line is long, like it was when we visited the carnival. Just means it is popular though, not that y'all suck." I've said to much.
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Aurora is aghast as the feast ends prematurely. Under protest, she stuffs her skirts with pies and cakes and takes an armful of toffees, then uses her shield as a platter and piles it high.
With a mouth full of biscuit Aurora sits upon the bench before the sphinx. She happily lets Helvetica speak whilst she goes on eating, then adds:
"Mmmm.... nom... Hel's right. We don't think you did it.... We're looking for the where-bears. What've they got against you though?"
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<rambling>
"Uh...what?"
Zu shakes his head and then also offers a bow of respect to the sphinx. "Ma'am Jherizhana, they're tellin' the truth. Right now we don't have any good reason to think you or anyone else in the circus are responsible for killing these local human beans. But the folks here in town sure think otherwise and we'd like to prove them wrong before they run you all outta town or something worse."
The leshy glances over at Helvetica. "But Hel here has a point - word has it some of the clowns were hanging out near your tent when they shouldn't have been. Do you know anything about that?"
Jherizhana makes a languid turn of her head to peer at Helvetica. "Well, you are at least interesting enough to look at. Yes, that is sufficient genuflection," she says and then gives a deep, rumbling sound like a purr.
The sphinx listens to the ganzi's rambling and then shakes her head. "I am afraid that I do not have an alibi. I was in my personal wagon at the supposed time of the murders, and I enjoy my alone time. I very much doubt any of the clowns of the carnival would have anything to do with a murder let alone framing me for murder. We are family in a sense. Bonded by our exclusion from society and such. And while I do not know any werebears personally, I believe that that line of lycanthropy is generally moral and supportive of individual life and liberty, so I would find it difficult--but not impossible--to believe a werebear was involved in any of this."
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"Damn. Well, my next thought, and this is going to be awfully intimate, but can we see your claws? All of them? The four on the floor first, but also any super secret Sphinx claws too. The corpses had some claw marks on them, and by some I mean like hella claw marks and if we can show that your claws couldn't have clawed marks like those claw marks, that'd be something, RIGHT?! Helvetica suggests.
"We can't get a corpse in here, right? To do some comparative clawing? Maybe a pig or something? Could be dead, could be alive, although I bet it won't be for long if we're testing claws on it... Can a pig be both dead and alive without being undead? If you kill an undead, is it redead?" She scowls at the floor in thought.
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"It's absolutely redead," Zu remarks, finally with what he feels is some authority on the matter. "It started off just regular dead and then got made undead so if you kill it while it's undead it goes back to just being regular dead again, or redead."
"Anyway, um...isn't it rude to ask to see someone's claws? Maybe we can just make a drawing or something."
"Oh, it is fine," Jherizhana purrs. "As long as you do not seriously expect me to scratch a pig."
She holds up her forepaw, which has four feline toes. She flexes her toes and exposes the sickle-like claws. You note a fifth toe and claw higher up on her foreleg--a dewclaw--but not in a position where it would join with the others in shredding someone the size of a man. She raises a hind paw, which has only four feline toes and retractable claws in total. Finally, she holds up her ring-laden fingers, each tipped with filed and lacquered nails. Her hands have five fingers as expected, and the long nails could certainly leave a mark. Whether or not they could kill someone is uncertain.
"Other than proving my innocence, which, of course, I do appreciate," the sphinx says, "I am uncertain how this will help you to find the true murderer. Is that not what the sheriff told you would be necessary to truly clear me and the circus?"
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Helvetica makes a show of counting off each of Jherizhana's claws. "Four! Only four! No way she did it, that's the proof right there!" she declares with finality.
"I mean, you're right, but every little bit helps. Sorta like a handful of sand is made up of little itty-bitty, teeny-wheeny grains of sand. On their own? Just a touch of grit between your toes. But all together like that? BOOM! Your whole sandwich is ruined! Anyways... We should go find this thieves' guild then, huh?" she asks her friends.
"Hmm. Yes. Thieves," Jherizhana purrs. "I heard that the townsfolk were complaining about pickpockets. You should definitely ask a thief about that."
She makes a lazy shooing motion with her hand.
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"Mmm....nom....nom.....supposedly there's a thieves' guild here, though the sheriff denied it. Oooh! Maybe she's the guildmaster! Wait, she's not here is she?." Aurora looks around nervously.
"So where are we going to find this guild then? What if we steal something, would that result in an invitation to join? It should be something very noticeable. Where's the biggest cake in town?"
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Almara coughs and says, "Ah, you still represent us in town, so, please, do not commit any crimes."
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"Yeahhhhh, I think maybe asking around's a better option," Zu coughs. "Not that I think anyone's gonna just pop right out and say, 'Oh howdy, yes, I am a thief, let me take you to my thief hideout where my other friends who are also thieves are' or anything. But it might get their attention enough that they'll pay us a visit, y'know?"
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Helvetica slumps as her aspirations for a grand heist of an even grander cake are cruelly dashed by a carnie. "Fiiiiiine, we'll be suspicious and nosy until they come to swat our noses," she grumbles in agreement with Zu. "Let's shuffle on then, bet we can find a bakery while we get this done." Way less fun if we have to pay for it though...
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"Maybe ne'er-do-wells in disguise looking to get close and harm me," the sphinx says with an indignant sniff. "I think I shall teleport back to my wagon."
She makes an arcane gesture and disappears in a puff of smoke.
Almara escorts you out of the tent, provides you with additional taffy, and wishes you luck in your investigation.
Roughly half way to town, you see a small crowd of six townsfolks gathered around a tree off the side of the road. What they are doing is not immediately apparent, but their attention seems to be fixed on something near the base of the trunk. As you draw nearer, you can see that they are taking turns kicking and striking something.
"Sure you can!" one of the townsfolk answers Helvetica without turning around. The gang of men are beating and kicking a human--young adolescent by the size--tied to the trunk of the tree. The youth's head is covered by a burlap sack and sags limply. The weight of his body is supported only by the tight rope wrapped around the trunk and binding each wrist. He gives no sign of protest as the townsfolk unleash upon him.
The men laugh at Aurora's threat and enough of them glance your way to recognize your strangeness. "Wait your turn, circus-freaks," one says. "We'll be with you next."
Initiative. Round 1. Bold may act.
Tibitz
Helvetica
Townsfolk
Zu
Youth
Aurora
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Helvetica shouts at the speaker. "We may look funny, but nobody calls us Circus Freaks AND GETS AWAY WITH IIIIIT!" Mirroring the anger stemming from her wounded pride, her hair starts to flail.
Hock what might just be the most disgusting loogie you've ever heard, a thin line of black liquid slowly slides down the corner of her mouth. Taking aim, she expertly spits a glob of ink at the man's face!
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The townsman blinks furiously as Helvetica splatters him in the face with a wad of black mucous. Unfortunately, he seems to be able to clear enough of it to see if not look in the slightest presentable. Tibitz moves around to try to take out one of the townsfolk, but his efforts to avoid any strike that might actually kill the human foils his efforts and spoils the element of surprise.
The townsfolk, realizing that they are not among like-minded individuals and shortly thereafter that they are under assault, turn and rush the motley Pathfinders. Tibitz tries to knock out the man who runs by him toward Aurora, but just misses the bloke.
That man tries to pull Aurora off of her horse but cannot manage to lay his hands upon the merfolk. Another steps up and swings a wild and ineffective punch at Tibitz. The one Tibitz originally struck at returns the favor but finds the agile ysoki too quick.
Another runs around and clocks Helvetica upside the head. The next man turns and runs toward Zu, shouting, "I'ma smash a pumpkin!" His boast turns prayer, and he lands his fist in the middle of the leshy's gourd face. "Me too!" shouts another who follows him and kicks Zu in his tangled vines, somehow painfully.
Initiative. Round 1. Bold may act.
Tibitz
Helvetica (8/10 hp) (2 NL)
Red
Blue
Yellow
Red Dash
Blue Dash
Yellow Dash
Zu (7 NL)
Youth.
Aurora