As the sun crystal crests above the highest most buildings shadowing the people of Emerald Square who are typically accustomed from making the journey from their homes to places of work find themselves gathered around the central well of the square.
The well is the sight of grisly murder. Anabelle a young redheaded seamstress has been brutally killed. He once soft and lovely features battered, crushed and chopped up against the side of the well, a sight that would make many of the women and some of the fathers stay awake that night in horror.
Sitting not far from the grisly scene is a young man, his face streaked in tears staring at his own bloodied hands, the front of his outfit already caked with gore. Tearfully exclaiming to anyone who dares to ask or even raise a fist that he did all he could to help her and had no part in her murder.
Emmet arrives on the scene before the Lair Watch's local officers arrive and tries to bring some peace to what may end up being a lynching before long.
"Leave this boy alone! He is with the Watch now, and the Watch will judge him!" Emmett shouts with a gruff watchman's voice that brooked no backtalk.
He looks down at the young man with tired eyes. His body feels heavier than it did this morning when he struggled to get out of his lonesome bed. He's older than I thought... he thinks to himself and sighs.
With heavy steps, he walks back to the nearby well, now confident the boy will not be harmed, and looks once more at the dead seamstress. His lips tighten as he takes in the sight, pushing away his sadness, leaving place only for cold appraisal.
To no avail. His eyes fill with tear. He knows- knew the girl. How could this be? She's not the type... She did not deserve this! For a few heartbeats, he just stands watching, staring, lost in futile musings about fate.
But fate had nothing to do with this. Years of service had taught him that people often did not deserved their fate. Gods are whimsical, mean, and cruel. Period.
Pushing back the tears, he turns to the young man, appraising him, then kneels with a groan as his knees complain with a shot of pain. Now eye-level with him, he says with a soft voice: "I'm sorry for your loss... Now tell me what happened to Anabelle."
The human composes himself for a moment, and begins to tell his story.
"Sniff..you see, I'm a healer where I come from. So I immediately tried to work on the body, using cure spells and trying to sew up cuts with my healer's kit."
Murmuring to himself, the healer whisper,
What the heck!? Emmett thinks, losing his forgiving composure too easily.
He grabs the young man by the scruff of his cloak and lifts him slightly up. His face tenses as he hisses: "Look young man, when I said talk, I meant in Taldan! Now, let's try this again, hmm?"
The human wriggles out the authority figure's grasp, and hold's his hand out, in a manner to express 'wait".
The human then finds a stick to write in the nearby mud. Sadly, this is also in Celestial.
A horned child, Brianne, peers out from the crowd, a rabbit poking its head out of her backpack and sitting partly on her shoulder. Though initially drawn to the crowd by the prospect of easy marks (who would be paying attention to their coinpurses at such a time?), she finds herself staring at the horrible mess of blood that is left of Anabelle. The rabbit looks intently up at the child, who looks on back with a weary look.
"It's - I know, Bren," she answers the rabbit. "It's horrible."
As Brendan retreats back into her backpack to hide from the stench of death, Brianne listens in on the conversation between the bloody man and the watchman. But when the mystified guard begins roughly dealing with the strange barefooted man, Brianne stumbles on out from the crowd.
"He said he wanted a drink!" she snaps, a bit louder than she'd intended. She slows her speech down, and gets quieter, too. "And - and he found her, and he tried to help her, but he couldn't. He's a healer."
The tiefling girl wrings her hands together, clearly not comfortable in the present situation. She says toward the healer,
As she does so, Brianne looks at the terrible scene and tries to remember more about Anabelle. Brendan peers out from the backpack and gets back onto her shoulder to help her.
The human looks to the hellspawn girl in front of him.
The child thinks for a moment, then adds, "He says he did not kill her. He says he only tried to save her. She was already..." Brianne looks down at the woman's body and winces, stammering at the grisly sight. "He f-found her like this. He says that his magic stuff didn't work, that nothing worked."
As the young man twists out of his grasp, Emmett's hand moves to his belt, but it seems the suspect only wishes to talk, even though it's gibberish.
The clear voice coming out of the crowd startles him. He recognizes the girl, one of the urchins, part problem, part victim. He narrows his eyes and beckons her with a finger like an old oak branch: "You playing me?! You can understand him? Then tell him to stay put and keep his ass in the muck!"
Brianne nods in answer to Emmett but doesn't elaborate further. Instead, the she looks over toward Xanver and speaks in Celestial again.
The strange child approaches the helpless looking Oracle and looks him over. The rabbit on her shoulder makes a small squeak, then paws at the girl's face and seems to almost be gesturing down low.
"Oh," muses Brianne, looking down at the healer's feet.
Looking down to the little girl, a small smile creases the oracle's face, thankful he's being understood.
Addressing his feet, the human continues.
Emmett glares at the two, fuming: "Something funny? I'm not quite getting the joke. Perhaps it's all this blood and this poor girl's guts all over... You, you need to tell that boy that if he doesn't speak to me, he'll find himself on the wrong end of the noose before he knows it!"
"I - I don't think he can," muses the child, scratching her head. "Maybe he's dumb or something, but he doesn't talk normal. He's talking the, uh... the angel speech."
Brianne rubs at her throat and grimaces, as if something is bothering her. "I, uh, I can tell you what he says, and tell him what you say." Then a brief twinkle comes to her black eyes, and she wonders aloud, "Do I get paid for that? Do I get paid for translator-ing?"
Emmett calms down a notch, turns to the young girl, noticing her poorly state, and cracks a warmish smile: "All right I'll find some money for you. Tell me what he says and tell him what I say."
That seems to encourage the tiefling. She grins at her rabbit, then says in Celestial,
"You, uh, should learn how to speak another language," she says as she rubs her throat. "People don't speak this tongue. It hurts."
"I just told him you're in charge," the girl says slowly, "and that he ought'a learn a real speech."
Emmett pinches the high part of his nose, closing his eyes for a moment, keeping from bursting out: "Great. But what did he say before that?"
The human holds up his hand to stop the inquisitor from going on. He beings to take some long, calming breaths. After about half a minute, the witness tries to speak.
Emmett turns to the girl: "You've just lost a source of income..." Then he turns to the young man, impatient: "Yes, can't you tell what you're saying? You're in a whole lot of trouble!"
The human cringes at the knowledge he cost the helpful urchin some coin.
He introduces himself as Xanver Gamwich, and recounts the events that led to his discovery with the body, keeping to the original account.
Glornug watched from the mouth of a nearby alley as events unfolded. Tapping his chin in thought, he approached the well to see about getting a better view of the body, which mostly meant peering between the legs of those around him.
It seemed unlikely, though not impossible, that the crying human was responsible for the death. But perhaps he could tell for sure with a closer look. He made his way carefully through the crowd of big people until he could see everything clearly.
"Some of these people could stand to bathe more."
Looking at the grisly sight of the girl's body, his expression hardened. A dishonorable kill, clearly designed to inflict pain and convey savagery.
He stepped forward and tried to catch the eye of the older human, who seemed to be a guard or official of some kind, and cleared his throat.
"Excuse me. I have been trained as a hunter and tracker and know some things about different types of creatures, as well as tending to wounds. If you will permit, I would be happy to try to tell you more about what happened here." he said, bowing slightly.
Glornug looks at the older human.
"Do you serve as a guard? Your pardon, I am new to this place. The wounds on this female are from something big, with claws and fangs."
He looks at the younger human. "It is not likely he did this. Unless he's been blessed by the blurglork to change form." he says, making a small croaking noise.
"I am not sure what did cause it." he murmurs, tapping his chin, and then returns his attention to the older man.
"I am glad to help you in finding out, should you like. This is a bad kill." he says, with a frown.
Emmett eyes the Grippli with suspicion. Was he the killer?
With a gruff voice he says: "You can help. But you have to stay away from the body for now. No one gets near her but me until I say so."
Walking back to the body, Emmett notices that indeed the marks do not match weapons but something more bestial.
He turns to the boy again: "Ok, so you're from out of town. Where are you from? Did anyone else see you? How do I know you did not kill her?"
Trying to remain calm, Xanver explains, "Well, I'm from a world called Golarion. I was brought, wherever here is, by accident. Two wizards, I think, were battling in our village. One of them used a portal to leave, and I got sucked in. I've been here for two days. I just want to find the wizard that stranded me here and go home..officer."
Brianne's face grows a little darker as she realizes her easy money vanishes from thin air. She gives Xanver a wary look, as if wondering if he had meant to trick her. Then, she starts eyeing the body.
Curious, Brianne mutters a bit of magic beneath her breath and a fog appears over her black eyes. She stares at the corpse and the area around it, searching for residual magical auras.
...
Xanver picks in his belt pouch and produces a gold piece.
"For what it's worth, thanks", shrugged the oracle.
Glornug stands motionless, surveying the scene.
After a few moments, he glances over at the younger human and says, "I am sure you did what you could. I know it is not easy for a healer to lose someone who was in their care. There is no shame in this for you." He gives the young man a half-smile, then returns his attention to the carnage before him.
As the group speaks the crowd gets larger as more people moving through the the area notice the body (which someone by now had thoughtfully at least threw a sheet over) the group itself becomes the main object of interest to the growing and colorful mob. It's not long before Emmet realizes just how quite outnumbered he is here.
Emmett frowns at the gathered crowd and stands erect as he turns to face them and tell them what is and what will be: "PEOPLE! THERE'S BEEN A MURDER HERE. THIS YOUNG MAN TRIED HIS BEST TO SAVE THE GIRL, BUT SHE WAS CALLED REGARDLESS. I ASK THAT YOU DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THIS INVESTIGATION, LEST YOU FIND YOURSELF UNDER CHARGE AS WELL! I AM COMMISSIONING SOME PEOPLE AS MY DEPUTIES TO HELP THEM IN FINDING THE MURDERER. IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VISTIM OR ABOUT THE MURDER, COME FORWARD. OTHERWISE: GO BACK TO WORK!!!"
Glornug turns toward the growing crowd as the older human calls out to them to explain the situation.
Stepping closer to the blood-soaked young human, he says, "I will protect you, should it come to that. I hope it does not."
He puts his back to the man and keeps a watchful eye on the crowd.
Xanver stands up and behind the grippli, hoping to hide from the crowd the best he can.
Emmets pleas seem to have little effect in dispersing the crowd. No one is hurling stones yet at least.
Much to Emmets relief however he spots a pair of watchmen are trying to shoulder through the back.
"Over here!" he shouts to the watchmen, relieved to have greater numbers, but also worried as to what these men will do.
He turns to the young man: "No more of that nonsense, gibbering in unknown languages, you hear? These men will string you up if you give them a reason. Just- Just let the facts speak. Tell your side of the story. I'll handle the rest."
To the other two, the girl and the grippli: "If you want to help, keep an eye on the crowd. Perhaps the murderer still lurks nearby, or perhaps one of them has witnessed something. Work the crowd, but not to frenzied murder!" he barks with a watchman's staccato.
Glornug croaks and nods at the older human. Keeping himself between the younger man and the crowd, he looks the mass of people over for anyone or anything suspicious.
The tiefling girl looks a bit surprised at actually, well, working for the watch for once. Nevertheless, Brianne whispers something inaudible to her rabbit before staring at the crowd as the Grippli is doing.
Xanver quickly gathers his healer's kit, and whispers to the watchman.
"Um, can't we talk about this..
The guards quicken their pace and increase the force by which they shove people out of the way.
After Emmet explains the situation the guards quickly mark off the area and get people behind the line. The crowd is growing quite large and many of the people in the back are simply there for having seen a crowd. Things are much calmer now though and the small group of helpers at least don't have to worry about hurled rocks for now.
Emmett sighs in relief and turns to the body, lifting the veil covering the girl and studying the scene calmly, trying to figure out what might have happened at the well.
Xanver looks to Emmett.
Emmett winces. The Grippli was right: no man did this, but some beast, now what kind of beast, he had no idea.
Reaching an impasse, he turns to the girl and the Grippli as they return: "Any luck? Anyone looking suspicious?" A strong sense of helplessness fills his voice, but you can see resolve in his eyes.
Enough failures! I won't let that girl down. I'll find who or what killed her...
As the young man speaks to him once more in his strange dialect, he shrugs and ignores him.
"Gundval! Thorald! You start canvassing the area around the girl, circling out for thirty feet. Look for objects in the grass, but also animal tracks!" he barks to the two watchmen freshly arrived.
"I am watching, but as of yet I have not seen anything unusual. I will keep looking. Or I can help your other guards search. As you prefer.", Glornug says, keeping his gaze fixed on the crowd of onlookers.
The oracle whispers a prayer to the gods.
After several hours and several guards having their own things to say and questions to ask you find out the following.
-Anabelle was supposed to have met up with a secret lover whom she had been seeing for a while and, it was rumored, was planning to elope with.
-Anabelles parents, whose house she was watching, are currently on the other side of the wyrmgate trading tools and other finished goods to the hunters lodge on the other side of the portal for skins and wild herbs.
-You find no conspicuous tracks or any real physical evidence. Anabelle is covered in some kind of animal hair. But in these streets full of stray animals and especially rats that doesn't say much at all.
After a while more officers arrive along with an udnertaker and soon the girl is taken from the street. Xanver is taken down to the station after being given a moment to wash the blood off his hands to give a statement. So far no one has accused him of the murder but it's pretty clear that Xanver is pretty much the prime suspect.
Glornug watches as the young human is taken away by the guards. After a moment's hesitation, he decides to follow them.
He hangs back a bit, and does his best to remain unnoticed.
Emmett curses softly; there was very little to go on. He hands the boy to the guards, but warns them: "This is my case. I'm done with the lad. I expect to walk him back to the scene later today, so DON'T do anything to him, besides clean him up. I doubt he did it."
Then he walks to the Grippli and the girl: "You two are still working for me, until the next day, and you'll be paid for your trouble. Now, I want to find out what happened to that poor girl. So we're going to come back here with the lad and go over the scene and the events one more time, and then we'll take a walk and go see her family. I'll be the one giving them the bad news, but I want to know if they knew who her boyfriend was."
"Let's meet in two hours. In the meantime, find out what you can. I'll follow the watchmen and get the boy sorted out then meet you back here with him."
"I'm Emmett, by the way." he gruffs, extending his gnarled heavy hand.
Glornug takes the much larger extended hand with a smile. "Glornug is my name. My tribe name is Rrurblung, but it is not used as your people would use a surname. I will help happily. This was a bad death, and the human lad did not do it. He does not deserve trouble for it."
He looks about and rubs his chin, emitting a small croak. "I may follow along when they take him. Two hunters see more than one."
Emmett beams warmly at the Grippli: "Let the two of us track them then, and you can join too," he says, looking at the girl, "Once at the station, I'll fight the bureaucrats and you two can ask around and see what you can find out. There's a killer-beast at large..."
Brianne stays quiet for most of the exchange, nodding here and there. It's a choice for her: she allows the grippli and the guardsman to trade names, and keeps hers to herself, just in case.
"I know some people I can ask," says the tiefling child, twisting a finger about in her ear. "If I go out looking for folks to talk to, do I meet you later?"
Even as she talks, Brianne begins trying to scrounge up some mental notes on who to talk to...
"Fine, but you get paid tomorrow morning only..." replies Emmett gruffly, immediately regretting his abruptness.
But the girl was long gone, and he was done apologizing.