Paridon: The Dark Metropolis (Ravenloft)

[InVinoVeritas]

Perrin picks up the pocket watch. The glass is cracked, but it appears that the metal case took most of the beating. The innards have bent out of the watch, and a tinkling sound comes from inside as he holds and moves it around. Springs and cogs jut out at odd angles, yet still the watch face holds the time transfixed at one second before midnight. On the lid of the watch, there is an inscription in a circle, in the runic language of the gnomes.

Father Breman carefully examines the neck. The wound is crude, jagged, as if the head were crushed and torn from the body in the maw of a great beast. Yet, he notices more. A slender cut travels from the neck to underneath the body's shirt. Fr. Breman motions for Torhan to assist as he carefully undoes the vest's buttons, unlaces the tunic, and peels back the red-stained fabric. Torhan gasps as the body's chest is revealed. It is covered in Gnomish runes, strange symbols, lines drawn to connect certain points on his torso. Fr. Breman pauses, and looks back to Hieran. He waves them on. "Alchemical formulae. They will be a simple matter to decode. They are magical, but they pose no harm. Do continue. Just... be careful to preserve them."

The scalpel incision extends down the chest, and the skin readily peels back. The ribcage underneath has a few snapped ribs, lying in their proper place, but carefully severed from the ribcage. Fr. Breman looks closely at the ends of one of the ribs--these cuts are much more careful, nothing like the carnage at his neck. After taking out the severed ribs, the reason is clear. The heart has also been removed.

Torhan takes to examining the rest of the body, and as his clothes are peeled back, the markings continue, covering him from head (well, neck) to toe. And at his toe, something more. Stuck in his left foot, poking through his shoe, is a tiny fragment of what looks to be a broken spear. No more than an inch in length, the head and shaft of the spear are formed of metal and wood, and even polished.

Gis turns to Hieran, Ru, and Darian. "The body was found a few minutes after midnight. Enforcers were called to the tower, where the body was found hanging by a leg from one of the chains. The path of the chain would have taken the body into the tower bells in the hour, so the body was confiscated and brought here. We also brought a witness."

Gis moves over to the far wall, and explains, "I should warn you, the gnomes do not hold our traditions. Their ways appear strange, and they are in the midst of celebrating the Gnomish New Year. What you may see... is different."

He lifts back a curtain. Behind the curtain is a window, and through the window stands a small, young gnome. Her back is to the window, and a pair of long, flaxen braids hang from her head. She would barely come to your waist. Her clothing is surprisingly simple, very dark and close-fitting, concealing delicate limbs. She looks up, and turns toward the window. You try to see her face, but are met with an elaborate mask in the shape of a butterfly. Wings made of dyed feathers extend from the holes for her piercing ice-blue eyes. Veins and scales on a porcelain backing make for an exquisite piece of art. She looks up at the figures at the window, and in a small voice, very young, and very haunted, pleads, "Excuse me, sirs, but could I have a glass of water?"

 

[wmasters]

Perrin looks confused. "Of course, we will fetch some water for you straight away."

He goes to get water, and motions to Gis that he would like a word. "You found the body a few minutes after midnight? Do you mean 5 minutes, or 15? Because the watch stopped at a minute to, presumably all of that," he says, gesturing to the body, "was done in those minutes between midnight and your finding it."

 

[Rhun]

Torhan approaches the young halfling female, a smile on his face. "So, young miss, Captain Gis has told us that you were a witness to the crime that we are now investigating...what can you tell us?

 

[kinem]

Father Berman takes careful note of the apparently ritual way in which the body has been mutilated, trying to think of anything he might ever have heard of that at all resembles it. He looks to Darian to see if the wizard made anything of the strange symbols.

(ooc: knowledge (religion) +8)

He is startled by the indroduction of the gnomess, and even more by her butterfly mask. Instinctively he starts to reach for the silver symbol hanging at his neck: Ezra's sword thrust down in front of her shield, but in this case, the blade of the sword hosts the central body of an engraved butterfly, the symbol of Fate. Fortunately, he remembers in time that his hand is covered in blood, and brings it back down. Surely fate has brought her here, but is that just a party mask or is there more to it?

I most likely will have to question her myself, perhaps with the aid of a spell, but perhaps a hand washing would be in order first. For now, he listens intently to the conversation with the witness. When he is satisfied that the body has been thoroughly examined, he says "Help me wrap him up." When that's done, he washes himself quickly but thoroughly, and returns for prayer and conversation.

 

[industrygothica]

Remaining quiet for the time being, Darian listens intently to the young gnome while she answers Torhan's question.

 

[jkason]

Ru Brike, barbaric human monk

As the priest uncovers the runes on the flesh, Ru crosses his arms, muttering, "I suppose that answers the question of signs of ritual." He remains quiet as the examination continues, and on into the introduction of the gnome female.

His first inclination is to take her mask off for easier identification and to give them all a more direct look at her facial expressions as she responds. Gis' mention of cultural issues, however, stays his hand. Instead, he stays back, giving the small humanoid room so that she might tell her tale without feeling too horribly crowded.

 

[Boddynock]

Abass' interest is piqued by the ritual process which the body has undergone. He focuses at first on the examination of the body, not responding straight away to the opening of the curtain through to the windowed area. Then, when he looks up and sees the gnome female, he nods in satisfaction to himself and listens intently to the story which unfolds.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Perrin and Gis head back down the hallway to fetch a pitcher of water, glass, and a basin. "The body was reported to us by the witness about 15 minutes after midnight, and we arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later. We were able to retrieve the body before the clock struck one. I can't imagine what the mess that would have resulted if we hadn't gotten there when we did; it would have been ground up by the gears. If the victim was killed before midnight... we would not yet know about what happened when."

Perrin and Gis return with the water. A glass is poured for the gnome, and Torhan delivers the glass. He asks about the events of the night, while Darian and Ru stand by to listen.

"Thank you," she begins. She takes a sip before climbing into the chair. "I don't know how much I can help... I saw the body, dangling from one of the chains in the clock tower by the face... It was terrible... Up and down, up and down... Dripping all over..." She looks upward, sobbing, terrified, as if the corpse floated above her. "I don't know who it is--I don't know! Just... Keep it away from me!"

"It" lay on the table while Hieran took notes. Although he had never seen the diagrams traced out on skin like this before, the patterns were familiar to him. He even recognized some of the tracings from his own spellbook. Along his left arm, the formula for resonances in negative energy in animated corpses. Across his chest, the sigil for imbuing the skin with protective hardness. Pity it did him little good. The patterns were not recent, though, but tattooed over a long period of time--years, Fr. Breman confirms. And still, there is the question of the surgical precision of the heart's removal and the crude brutality resulting in the head's removal. Neither of the two investigators know of any ritual or religion that would ask for or require two extremely different steps.

Fr. Breman takes the opportunity to wash his hands. "Help me wrap him up," he says, and the two finish their discussion just in time to witness the gnome's outburst.

 

[industrygothica]

"Pardon me, miss," Darian says as he moves close to the young gnome. "We don't mean to upset you, and certainly we will keep you away from it." Darian speaks in his usual eloquent manner in hopes to calm the young lady down a bit.

"I do believe, however, that we've not yet gotten your name. May I ask what I should have the pleasure of calling you?"

[sblock]Diplomacy +10[/sblock]

 

[wmasters]

Perrin waits for the girl to answer Darian's question before addressing her. "So what exactly did you see? Where were you and where was the body? And what else was going on at the time, with the festivities?"