skotothalamos
formerly roadtoad
The next day, only three Constables showed up in time for Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft’s morning meeting: Malkie, James, and Cazara. Delft asked to know how the investigation was going, and Malkie was in the process of fumbling through her notebook, trying to sort it all out, and in fact offering her notes to Delft in an effort to have him sort it out himself when Mort and Ironpeak came in.
Mort had talked to Tia, the administrative assistant at the Danoran Consulate, to see if she could confirm that Security Chief LeBrix’s report on the security of Danoran-owned factories was indeed missing. She had confirmed it, and then Mort talked to LeBrix, getting him to remember exactly which factories had suffered the loss of goods.
The group had several interviews lined up for the day: Nilasa Hume’s boss, Heward Sechim, was coming in early, and Dr. von Recklinghausen’s reference Barnaby Camp was due in after him. Seeing that they were not ready to give him a report, Delft waved them all out of his office and let them get on with their interviews.
Heward Sechim turned out to be one of the few decent factory owners in Flint. While it seemed like the entire rest of Parity Lake was on the verge of exploding, with factory doors chained shut to keep the workers from striking, Sechim claimed he was having no trouble with his employees and business was progressing as normal. He told the constables that Nilasa had been his first hire five years ago when he opened his alkahest factory. He explained that he had always had an interest in arcanoscientific study, and his famous uncle, the ancient skyseer Nevard, had challenged Heward to open up a “good” factory, one that was decent to its employees.
Heward told the constables that he felt that Nilasa was a good “kid” (though she was older than him), who had a rough upbringing, and that she had some unsavory contacts as a result of her childhood. He was glad to see her making an honest living at his factory, though he had been concerned of late that she had been getting mixed up with Gale and her terrorists. Mort asked about the rash of suspected arson in Parity Lake, and Heward indicated that he had been approached on two separate occasions by two separate groups of men, asking to by some cases of alkahest “off the record.” He refused the first group, and they implied that some misfortune could befall his factory if he did not cooperate. Heward said he is currently in the process of stalling the second group. The constables took this as an indication that the arsons around Parity Lake might be connected to the disappearing goods.
After the interview was over, and the constables had arranged to inspect Nilasa’s room at the factory, Heward asked the constables to contact his uncle Nevard. Heward seemed to think his uncle could broker some sort of peaceful negotiation between Gale and the authorities, as both groups respected his wisdom. The constables agreed to do this. Zara was familiar with his skyseer commune out in the Cloudwood and said he should be easy to find.
The RHC’s next guest was Dr. Barnaby Camp, who did not have much information on Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. He told the investigators that Wolfgang had been a student of his years before, but he had not had any recent contact with him. He had written a letter of recommendation for his hostel stay, and the hostel owner had contacted him to follow up on it, but he had not had any personal contact with von Recklinghausen. Detective Porter, who had preceded the group to every location of interest so far, had spoken with Camp the day before. Dr. Camp mentioned that the man had what appeared to be a stab wound in his chest, but refused treatment. Camp said the wound smelled strange: like burnt coffee or oil. Ironpeak asked if Dr. Camp knew what kind of medicine Dr. von Recklinghausen had specialized in, and Camp said he thought that Wolfgang had been studying the exciting new field of arcane surgery, combining healing magic and science for even better results. Camp seemed like he didn’t know any more, but he suggested the constables check in with Professor Lynn Kindleton at Pardwight University, as he believed they had been close.
Kindleton was next on the constables’ list anyway, so the four RHC members headed to the University while Mort stayed at Headquarters some time to study maps of Parity Lake, trying to discern a pattern. A short carriage ride across Central District took them to the scattered campus of Pardwight University. They were able to find Professor Kindleton’s office (above a butcher shop) easily enough, and arrived about half an hour before her regularly-scheduled office hours. The constables had a look around while they waited, and spied something curious: another man clearly staking out the place from a café across the street.
They saw that the man seemed to match the description of their “Detective” Porter. Ironpeak went around the back of the shop to guard the back alley, Cazara alighted to the roof of the building, and James kept an eye from across the street as Malkie approached the man. Malkie sat at an adjacent table and asked Porter how his investigation was going. Porter said it was going fine and asked Malkie how the RHC investigation was going. Before she could answer, he asked the question that completely disarmed her. He said, simply, “Aren’t you dead?”
Malkie’s eyes grew wide and she could not speak. Cazara, keeping an eye on the unfolding events, noticed the problem and quickly moved in on the conversation, but not before alerting Ironpeak. Porter offered Malkie some wine, which seemed to only distress her further.
The group gathered around Porter and Malkie. Porter engaged the constables in a very civil conversation about their shared interest in the whereabouts of Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Porter suggested that the two groups could work together to find the missing doctor, perhaps sharing information about the case. The conversation turned in many directions before any agreement was ever made, however.
Cazara and Porter shared a mysterious moment in regards to Malkie. They seemed to come to the conclusion that if she died, “it would start over again.” No one else had any idea what they were talking about. Cazara seemed to think that this means that she must protect Malkie. She asked for Porter’s help in that regard. He told her that she misremembered: it was out of his hands.
Ironpeak assessed the way Porter moved and carried himself as they talked, and decided he probably had more “hit points” than the four RHC constables combined. An education in Martial Science can help to keep a person out of many problematic situations. She determined that his “Armor Class” and other defenses were on-par with the constables, so it would not be an entirely lost cause, but still probably best to avoid an armed confrontation. She engaged him in conversation, trying to pry information out of him.
For a while, Porter simply stonewalled, but Ironpeak and Zara managed to get him talking about himself a little. While he would not divulge who exactly he was working for, he did share some information. Zara complimented him on his speedy travel through the city, always arriving at crime scenes ahead of them. He hinted that he was able to use the shadows of the city to travel faster than normal. Ironpeak asked him where he got these powers, and he claimed to be connected to the city’s energy.
The conversation was cut short by the return of Professor Kindleton. She stopped in to the butcher shop beneath her office for a moment and then headed upstairs. Malkie and James met her upstairs and tried to interview her, but she would not be convinced that they were actual officers of the law. Malkie finally resorted to using her magical charms to convince the Professor to come into the station that afternoon, even though it meant canceling a class.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Cazara was looking around the butcher shop. She saw a fairly obvious bundle of sausage behind the counter with a note tied to the outside of it, marked with a “W.” Thinking fast, Cazara told the butcher she was there to pick up am order for Wolfgang. The butcher grabbed the “W” package, collected Cazara’s money, and handed it over.
The constables took their leave of the neighborhood and headed back to headquarters, where Mort was waiting with ideas regarding factories. First things first though: Cazara had a very meaty letter to read, and Malkie had to go scream in an interview room. Delft encouraged the others to go watch Malkie during her private moment through the one-way glass. No one seemed to concerned about Malkie’s personal problem, though, so they got on with their investigation.
The letter from Lynn Kindleton was some pretty amateur spy business. She assured Wolfgang she would help find him a way out of the city, and that she could keep sending food. Kindleton herself arrived for an interview and confirmed that she knew that Doctor von Recklinghausen was in trouble, and that he seemed to have gotten mixed up with some organized crime thugs. She had been wary of anyone claiming to be police after her encounter with Detective Porter, and it was only upon actually seeing Malkie and James at RHC headquarters that she began to trust that they were actual constables.
Professor Kindleton indicated that she and Wolfgang had dated in college, and he had tried to get her to move to Arrovia with him after graduation. She declined, and the two of them corresponded occasionally in the intervening years. He had asked to use her as a reference while traveling, with the additional information that he was having marital problems back home. She indicated that she was uninterested in the implications thereof, but bore him no ill will, and so she wrote him a letter of recommendation. That morning, she received a letter by way of messenger indicating that Wolfgang was in trouble, wanted by police, and hiding with people who could keep him safe in the Nettles until he secured travel out of the city. Her description of the messenger boy got Malkie thinking that he sounded like a known member of the Kell gang, which would have the resources to help von Recklinghausen… for a price.
The constables thanked the Professor for her time, but advised her to leave the city since she would likely be in danger both from the Kell gang and this “Detective Porter.” She said she would take some leave and visit her sister in Slate. A pair of officers escorted her back to her place to pack.
Mort had made a map of Parity Lake, plotted with burned-out factories, Danoran-owned factories, and the factories where Lebrix had found missing goods and that mysterious oil-like substance with the glowing beads. He had several factories he wanted to check out, in an effort to acquire the substance for their investigation. Malkie wanted to get in touch with Lorcan Kell or one of his henchmen in Parity Lake, and the constables still wanted to check out Nilasa’s room at Heward’s factory. They all piled into a carriage and made for Parity Lake.
The first stop was Sechim’s Alkahest & Etchings, where they talked with Heward Sechim again. Parity Lake was in a near riot. The factories on either side of Sechim’s had their doors chained shut with armed guards barring entry. Employees were likely locked inside, forced to stay at work to prevent a strike. By comparison, Sechim’s was as close to paradise as one could get in a Parity Lake factory. The employees seemed happy, the upper-floor windows were open to circulate air, and the youngest employees seemed to have jobs that kept them away from the hazardous materials.
Sechim showed the constables where Nilasa had lived, in one of his upstairs storage rooms. They did a search, but found only spare clothes, some incidental money, and a book on learning Elvish. Interviews with several of the employees revealed that Nilasa was well-liked.
Since so much of their investigation was focused in and around Parity Lake, an the constables weren’t sure how much to trust the Flint PD, they asked Heward if they could set up a temporary office in one of his spare rooms. Heward agreed and said he would have some of his “kids” empty a storage room and put the boxes in Nilasa’s room. The constables insisted he not go to such trouble; they could set up shop in Nilasa’s room.
Malkie set off in search of some Kell contacts she knew, while the others headed to the nearest Danoran-owned factory on Mort’s map, which happened to be the gunworks next door to Sechim’s. Luckily, Mort recognized one of the security guards, Guillaume-Robert, as an off-duty guard from the Danoran Consulate, and was able to easily gain entry to the factory through a side door. Mort explained to the factory foreman that, with all the recent trouble, the Consulate was doing a security inspection on all Danoran-owned factories. As the foreman, Pierre, was very busy with keeping his employees in check, he pretty much gave the constables the run of the place.
It did not take long for Ironpeak to spot some of the mysterious black goo in a vial on a high shelf. Mort hid it in his clothes and the team headed back to Sechim’s. James wanted to inspect the contents of the vial, but was afraid of any interactions with the acidic air of the alkahest factory, so he instead headed back to RHC headquarters. James consulted with his books and some on-staff arcanists and soon discovered that the substance was known as witchoil. Witchoil is powerful magical reagent that can substitute for any spell components, but James’s sources indicated that no moral person would use it, as each of the floating motes of light was someone’s soul and burning the oil would consume those souls.
More next week!
Mort had talked to Tia, the administrative assistant at the Danoran Consulate, to see if she could confirm that Security Chief LeBrix’s report on the security of Danoran-owned factories was indeed missing. She had confirmed it, and then Mort talked to LeBrix, getting him to remember exactly which factories had suffered the loss of goods.
The group had several interviews lined up for the day: Nilasa Hume’s boss, Heward Sechim, was coming in early, and Dr. von Recklinghausen’s reference Barnaby Camp was due in after him. Seeing that they were not ready to give him a report, Delft waved them all out of his office and let them get on with their interviews.
Heward Sechim turned out to be one of the few decent factory owners in Flint. While it seemed like the entire rest of Parity Lake was on the verge of exploding, with factory doors chained shut to keep the workers from striking, Sechim claimed he was having no trouble with his employees and business was progressing as normal. He told the constables that Nilasa had been his first hire five years ago when he opened his alkahest factory. He explained that he had always had an interest in arcanoscientific study, and his famous uncle, the ancient skyseer Nevard, had challenged Heward to open up a “good” factory, one that was decent to its employees.
Heward told the constables that he felt that Nilasa was a good “kid” (though she was older than him), who had a rough upbringing, and that she had some unsavory contacts as a result of her childhood. He was glad to see her making an honest living at his factory, though he had been concerned of late that she had been getting mixed up with Gale and her terrorists. Mort asked about the rash of suspected arson in Parity Lake, and Heward indicated that he had been approached on two separate occasions by two separate groups of men, asking to by some cases of alkahest “off the record.” He refused the first group, and they implied that some misfortune could befall his factory if he did not cooperate. Heward said he is currently in the process of stalling the second group. The constables took this as an indication that the arsons around Parity Lake might be connected to the disappearing goods.
After the interview was over, and the constables had arranged to inspect Nilasa’s room at the factory, Heward asked the constables to contact his uncle Nevard. Heward seemed to think his uncle could broker some sort of peaceful negotiation between Gale and the authorities, as both groups respected his wisdom. The constables agreed to do this. Zara was familiar with his skyseer commune out in the Cloudwood and said he should be easy to find.
The RHC’s next guest was Dr. Barnaby Camp, who did not have much information on Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. He told the investigators that Wolfgang had been a student of his years before, but he had not had any recent contact with him. He had written a letter of recommendation for his hostel stay, and the hostel owner had contacted him to follow up on it, but he had not had any personal contact with von Recklinghausen. Detective Porter, who had preceded the group to every location of interest so far, had spoken with Camp the day before. Dr. Camp mentioned that the man had what appeared to be a stab wound in his chest, but refused treatment. Camp said the wound smelled strange: like burnt coffee or oil. Ironpeak asked if Dr. Camp knew what kind of medicine Dr. von Recklinghausen had specialized in, and Camp said he thought that Wolfgang had been studying the exciting new field of arcane surgery, combining healing magic and science for even better results. Camp seemed like he didn’t know any more, but he suggested the constables check in with Professor Lynn Kindleton at Pardwight University, as he believed they had been close.
Kindleton was next on the constables’ list anyway, so the four RHC members headed to the University while Mort stayed at Headquarters some time to study maps of Parity Lake, trying to discern a pattern. A short carriage ride across Central District took them to the scattered campus of Pardwight University. They were able to find Professor Kindleton’s office (above a butcher shop) easily enough, and arrived about half an hour before her regularly-scheduled office hours. The constables had a look around while they waited, and spied something curious: another man clearly staking out the place from a café across the street.
They saw that the man seemed to match the description of their “Detective” Porter. Ironpeak went around the back of the shop to guard the back alley, Cazara alighted to the roof of the building, and James kept an eye from across the street as Malkie approached the man. Malkie sat at an adjacent table and asked Porter how his investigation was going. Porter said it was going fine and asked Malkie how the RHC investigation was going. Before she could answer, he asked the question that completely disarmed her. He said, simply, “Aren’t you dead?”
Malkie’s eyes grew wide and she could not speak. Cazara, keeping an eye on the unfolding events, noticed the problem and quickly moved in on the conversation, but not before alerting Ironpeak. Porter offered Malkie some wine, which seemed to only distress her further.
The group gathered around Porter and Malkie. Porter engaged the constables in a very civil conversation about their shared interest in the whereabouts of Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Porter suggested that the two groups could work together to find the missing doctor, perhaps sharing information about the case. The conversation turned in many directions before any agreement was ever made, however.
Cazara and Porter shared a mysterious moment in regards to Malkie. They seemed to come to the conclusion that if she died, “it would start over again.” No one else had any idea what they were talking about. Cazara seemed to think that this means that she must protect Malkie. She asked for Porter’s help in that regard. He told her that she misremembered: it was out of his hands.
Ironpeak assessed the way Porter moved and carried himself as they talked, and decided he probably had more “hit points” than the four RHC constables combined. An education in Martial Science can help to keep a person out of many problematic situations. She determined that his “Armor Class” and other defenses were on-par with the constables, so it would not be an entirely lost cause, but still probably best to avoid an armed confrontation. She engaged him in conversation, trying to pry information out of him.
For a while, Porter simply stonewalled, but Ironpeak and Zara managed to get him talking about himself a little. While he would not divulge who exactly he was working for, he did share some information. Zara complimented him on his speedy travel through the city, always arriving at crime scenes ahead of them. He hinted that he was able to use the shadows of the city to travel faster than normal. Ironpeak asked him where he got these powers, and he claimed to be connected to the city’s energy.
The conversation was cut short by the return of Professor Kindleton. She stopped in to the butcher shop beneath her office for a moment and then headed upstairs. Malkie and James met her upstairs and tried to interview her, but she would not be convinced that they were actual officers of the law. Malkie finally resorted to using her magical charms to convince the Professor to come into the station that afternoon, even though it meant canceling a class.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Cazara was looking around the butcher shop. She saw a fairly obvious bundle of sausage behind the counter with a note tied to the outside of it, marked with a “W.” Thinking fast, Cazara told the butcher she was there to pick up am order for Wolfgang. The butcher grabbed the “W” package, collected Cazara’s money, and handed it over.
The constables took their leave of the neighborhood and headed back to headquarters, where Mort was waiting with ideas regarding factories. First things first though: Cazara had a very meaty letter to read, and Malkie had to go scream in an interview room. Delft encouraged the others to go watch Malkie during her private moment through the one-way glass. No one seemed to concerned about Malkie’s personal problem, though, so they got on with their investigation.
The letter from Lynn Kindleton was some pretty amateur spy business. She assured Wolfgang she would help find him a way out of the city, and that she could keep sending food. Kindleton herself arrived for an interview and confirmed that she knew that Doctor von Recklinghausen was in trouble, and that he seemed to have gotten mixed up with some organized crime thugs. She had been wary of anyone claiming to be police after her encounter with Detective Porter, and it was only upon actually seeing Malkie and James at RHC headquarters that she began to trust that they were actual constables.
Professor Kindleton indicated that she and Wolfgang had dated in college, and he had tried to get her to move to Arrovia with him after graduation. She declined, and the two of them corresponded occasionally in the intervening years. He had asked to use her as a reference while traveling, with the additional information that he was having marital problems back home. She indicated that she was uninterested in the implications thereof, but bore him no ill will, and so she wrote him a letter of recommendation. That morning, she received a letter by way of messenger indicating that Wolfgang was in trouble, wanted by police, and hiding with people who could keep him safe in the Nettles until he secured travel out of the city. Her description of the messenger boy got Malkie thinking that he sounded like a known member of the Kell gang, which would have the resources to help von Recklinghausen… for a price.
The constables thanked the Professor for her time, but advised her to leave the city since she would likely be in danger both from the Kell gang and this “Detective Porter.” She said she would take some leave and visit her sister in Slate. A pair of officers escorted her back to her place to pack.
Mort had made a map of Parity Lake, plotted with burned-out factories, Danoran-owned factories, and the factories where Lebrix had found missing goods and that mysterious oil-like substance with the glowing beads. He had several factories he wanted to check out, in an effort to acquire the substance for their investigation. Malkie wanted to get in touch with Lorcan Kell or one of his henchmen in Parity Lake, and the constables still wanted to check out Nilasa’s room at Heward’s factory. They all piled into a carriage and made for Parity Lake.
The first stop was Sechim’s Alkahest & Etchings, where they talked with Heward Sechim again. Parity Lake was in a near riot. The factories on either side of Sechim’s had their doors chained shut with armed guards barring entry. Employees were likely locked inside, forced to stay at work to prevent a strike. By comparison, Sechim’s was as close to paradise as one could get in a Parity Lake factory. The employees seemed happy, the upper-floor windows were open to circulate air, and the youngest employees seemed to have jobs that kept them away from the hazardous materials.
Sechim showed the constables where Nilasa had lived, in one of his upstairs storage rooms. They did a search, but found only spare clothes, some incidental money, and a book on learning Elvish. Interviews with several of the employees revealed that Nilasa was well-liked.
Since so much of their investigation was focused in and around Parity Lake, an the constables weren’t sure how much to trust the Flint PD, they asked Heward if they could set up a temporary office in one of his spare rooms. Heward agreed and said he would have some of his “kids” empty a storage room and put the boxes in Nilasa’s room. The constables insisted he not go to such trouble; they could set up shop in Nilasa’s room.
Malkie set off in search of some Kell contacts she knew, while the others headed to the nearest Danoran-owned factory on Mort’s map, which happened to be the gunworks next door to Sechim’s. Luckily, Mort recognized one of the security guards, Guillaume-Robert, as an off-duty guard from the Danoran Consulate, and was able to easily gain entry to the factory through a side door. Mort explained to the factory foreman that, with all the recent trouble, the Consulate was doing a security inspection on all Danoran-owned factories. As the foreman, Pierre, was very busy with keeping his employees in check, he pretty much gave the constables the run of the place.
It did not take long for Ironpeak to spot some of the mysterious black goo in a vial on a high shelf. Mort hid it in his clothes and the team headed back to Sechim’s. James wanted to inspect the contents of the vial, but was afraid of any interactions with the acidic air of the alkahest factory, so he instead headed back to RHC headquarters. James consulted with his books and some on-staff arcanists and soon discovered that the substance was known as witchoil. Witchoil is powerful magical reagent that can substitute for any spell components, but James’s sources indicated that no moral person would use it, as each of the floating motes of light was someone’s soul and burning the oil would consume those souls.
More next week!
