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Message: <blockquote data-quote="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 6203540" data-attributes="member: 83398">At Nevard’s rally, the disguised skeletons in front of the stage attacked when Cazara and Ironpeak tried to search their wagons.  James was investigating an old fountain behind the stage when suddenly a pair of flayed jaguars materialized from it and made their way toward the crowd. The skeletons hastily summoned up a third jaguar before Cazara and Ironpeak destroyed them and the summoning rings. The jaguars made their way into the crowd, mauling people who got in their way. Their target seemed to be Nevard, on the far end of the fairgrounds. Malkie managed to grab hold of the collar of one of the jaguars. She told it to obey, and it did. Outpaced by the other jaguars, the Halfling leapt onto the back of her new pet and pursued the others. James emerged from behind the stage and – seemingly confused – took a pot shot with his musket at Malkie and her jaguar, missing narrowly. Mort and Summer guarded Nevard, shooting at the fast approaching jaguars. Mort tried to convince Nevard to run, but the old skyseer said he and his guards would stand their ground and not balk in the face of opposition. As the jaguars mauled a pair of Nevard’s guards, Mort retreated on foot and Summer flew away, pulling Nevard along with her. The group managed to take down the jaguars in short order, but as the fight was finishing up James shot at Malkie again, this time dropping her. James seemed like a man possessed, shooting wildly at his fellow constables. The group moved in on him. Ironpeak managed to grab his musket and disarm James, and Cazara moved in to subdue him. She noticed something was seriously wrong with James and, focusing with her inner eye, saw that he was being controlled by a malevolent spirit. Cazara was able to cast out the spirit, but after the spirit left, James was dead. The constables carried James’s body to Nevard’s tent. After the police settled things down, Nevard was able to give his speech, sharing his prophecies with the crowd and offering shelter in the Cloudwood for those who wanted to escape the shadow of Cauldron Hill. The constables arranged transport for James’s body to RHC headquarters and, after dealing with some paperwork, called it a night. The next morning, Mort was late to arrive from the Danoran Consulate.  Summer was also not in attendance, leaving only Malkie, Cazara, and Ironpeak at the morning meeting. Chief Inspector Margaret Saxby demanded a full report on the investigation the constables had been pursuing. She said she was off to meet with Flint Governor Roland Stanfield and would be back in a couple hours, at which point she expected a full report on what was happening and what steps the team planned to take to finish their investigation. As the three constables headed to their office to begin to organize their information, Assistant Chief Inspector Delft informed Ironpeak that there had been another suspected Ragman murder overnight, as if she didn’t have enough to focus on. Mort arrived to help with the investigation. The constables pored over their files and diagrammed out the relationships between all the different players in their investigation. While Ironpeak was out of the room, Mort confided in the others that he had not gotten a good night’s sleep, and had also woken that morning with dried blood on his hands and some apparent missing time. During this time, they had an RHC spirit medium analyze a vial of witchoil to see if any of the souls suspended in the liquid could be contacted. She seemed disturbed by the experience and said she only heard unending screaming. When Saxby returned, the constables laid out a storyline that seemed to point to Nettles Mayor Reed Macbannin, whose district included Cauldron Hill. Saxby asked some pointed questions about the reliability of the constables’ sources, then told them that moving against Macbannin would be politically complicated. She asked the constables to hold off on any action until the following day; she was going to discuss their investigation with the Governor that afternoon. After Saxby left again, Delft came in and asked again how confident the constables were in their information. He then asked Mort if he wanted to become an official member of the Royal Homeland Constabulary, as it would be required for the next step. Mort negotiated some fine points and then agreed. Delft told him to go downstairs and fill out the hiring paperwork and then left, indicating he would be back in an hour or so. When he returned, Delft threw an envelope on the table. “Here’s your search warrant for Macbannin, complete with a judge’s signature. You didn’t get it from me.” Then he left the room. With conflicting orders from their two immediate superiors, the constables went with the Delft option and ascended Cauldron Hill. At the mayor’s manor, the constables were met by Macbannin’s butler, Cillian Creed. He asked the constables to wait in the garden while he told Macbannin that they had arrived. While waiting, they ran into a horse messenger on his smoke break who pontificated about the beautiful chaos of the human condition, and how the common man was suffering and how he would “gladly give it all up to stop their suffering.” A few constables engaged him in philosophical conversation and basically came to the conclusion that he was some Millerite hippy before he claimed he had places to be and rode off. The butler returned and ushered the constables into the house, where they were received by Reed Macbannin. The group introduced themselves as RHC constables sent to search the house for evidence related to a smuggling operation and the production of the substance known as witchoil. Something in Mort’s tone seemed to be misinterpreted by Macbannin, and he seemed to wink when he said, “Oh, so Saxby has sent you to ‘look around’ my place to see if I’m up to ‘no good.’ I understand. Please, feel free.” The group sensed that Macbannin was acquiescing under a false assumption and sent Mort to distract the Mayor with conversation while the other three searched the house. Malkie sidled up to a member of the house staff and tried to blend in, asking if “we’re ready.” The staff member complained that there had been unfortunate setbacks recently and he thought the operation was running behind schedule. Malkie asked to talk to the person in charge and the staff member led her toward the basement stairs. Meanwhile, Cazara and Ironpeak were in the process of investigating the basement stairs themselves. Ironpeak watched outside the door while Cazara went in. Inside a small room under the house’s main stairs, she found a concrete circle in the middle of the hardwood floor. The concrete circle was surrounded by a rusted ring of iron.Ironpeak saw Malkie and the staff member approaching and knocked on the door, signaling Cazara to hide. Cazara went through an unexplored door, where she found a strange winch with a chain connected to another concrete block surrounded by a rusted iron ring. Just as Cazara was wondering when the last earthquake had happened, the entire house shook. Cazara and Ironpeak both heard a structural collapse in the room between the two of them, punctuated by a shout of surprise. They opened the doors to see a woman wearing a rusted-iron necklace who had become mostly stuck in the solid concrete floor. Her head had been smashed open by a falling ceiling beam. In her hand, she clutched a handful of rusted-iron necklaces. Ironpeak took one and out it on. The concrete faded from view and she could see a spiral staircase leading down in its place. Mort and the mayor witnessed a sudden geyser of witchoil bursting out of the ground in the front yard. Macbannin said, “I seem to have a situation, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…”</blockquote>

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