Clockwork, Steam & Sorcery

[Argent Silvermage]

Yara, could you watch for the guardsmen while I try to track down the killers? Gears is following them but he may loose them in a croud. Forge helps her get the boat to the shore and them hops out and starts running towards Gears' position.

 

[loxmyth]

~Forge
The wide-eyed look of fright doesn't leave Yara's pale face. "Ye can't go off by yeself," she whispers quietly, but she stays rooted next to the body as Forge dashes off after his familiar. Crossing back over the bridge, he unerring weaves his way through the moonlit streets, making his way to his animal companion. Eventually, he comes to stand before an old decrepit wooden tower in Cockscombe. Surrounded by similarly rundown buildings, the enchanter only knows he is at the correct place because Gears lands gracefully on his shoulder. The shape came here.

~Froud

With the guards running abreast of the gnome, Froud finally returns to the riverside - to find Yara hunched over the deadly-pale halfling corpse. The guard men exchange uneasy looks and one pronounces, "he's as dead as a door post."

With a weary sigh, the other turns to both Froud and Yara. "I'm going to need your names, and we'll need to check your weapons. We can take your statement here, or at the Hall if you'd like."

 

[Uriel]

Froud looks shocked at te corpse, never having seen someone so recently killed. Showing his weapon, merely a dagger, as his spanner was a tool after all, the Gnome nods and looks about for Forge.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Forge will hide in the shadows across the street from the building and send Gears back to where Yara was.

 

[loxmyth]

~Forge
Am I now no better than your courier service? the enchanter hears in his mind, but he knows it's idle grumbling and soon enough the owl flings himself into the air, arcing back towards the river. Forge follows the flight of his familiar until its dark shape disappears over the top of some buildings, leaving him all alone.

Not a sound is heard, save for the ambient sounds of a sleeping city; the creaks and groans as a slight wind moves through the slum. From the dark, menacing tower there is no sound at all, but it seems to grow slightly in Forge's mind.

~Froud
Yara shakily recounts her version of the events to one of the guards, while the other takes daggers from her and Froud. "We were crossin' the Westerin right over there, minding our own business when Forge starts tearing off along the bank..."
"And this one here's Forge, I takes it?" asks the guard, indicating the gnome.
"No, no," Yara cuts in crossly. "He's Froud. Forge went off after the killer on his own..."
"What? Just up and ran after the murderer, now? Is he crazy?"
"Seems that way, don't it?"
"Alright, alright, forget him for a moment, sooner we get your statement the sooner we can go find your crazy friend."

Meanwhile, the other guard says a few arcane words and peers at the daggers in his hands. After a few moments, he nods in satisfaction and hands them back. "Looks clean," he says to his partner, then turns his attention to Froud. "I'll need your statement now, sir. Can you tell me what happened? Just the basics, in your own... blimey!"

At that moment, the silent shape of Gears lands on Froud's head, giving the guard quite a fright at the creature's sudden appearance.

 

[Uriel]

Froud looks up, petting the owl casually as he recounts his tale'Well, I didn't really see anything,as i was going over some calculations in my head regarding a perplexing conundrum consisting of several variables created by the fluxuating pressure of the internal gearing mechanism of the forward rotation disk in my newest Portable-Temporal-Assertaion-Device...Um, I was trying to fix my Pocket-Watch.I didn't really see anything.I heard Forge yell Murder and I sort of panicked and ran off to find you, well, the Watch. I mean it's not as if i knew it would be YOU, not knowing any Watchmen or their particular patrols or usualy places of visit or habitation. Such knowledge would be akin to stalking you or some such, or unfair guesswork on my part as to where you might be, which could be invasive to say the least.Likewise,any guesses that were confirmed as fact mightbe better used at the gambling Halls, would you not think? One could make quite a bit of coin at such a place, although I have never been to any such places, as many ,if not all, are illegal,I think.I'm sorry what was your question again? Oh yes...I didn't see anything, sorry.Hey, I just thought of something...you are Watchmen, right? Does that mean that you know anything about fixing Watches,because as I may have mentioned, mineseems a bit off...'

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Forge stands outside the building for a few minutes until he looses all back bone and starts running back to where he left Froud and Yara.

 

[loxmyth]

"Slow down, slow down," the guard interrogating Froud bellows, and then adds a momentary sigh. "Well, you claim you've done no wrong, and I see nothing to incriminate you, so we'll let you go."

The other guard seems to be giving a similar speech to Yara. "Would you like to be escorted home, young lady?" he adds, perhaps a little too hopefully. Yara gracefully declines, and after taking a few careful moments to place a magical ward about the body, they exit the way they came.

As Yara and Froud take a moment to compose themselves, Forge's stocky shape appears from the shadows on the other side of the river and he makes his way towards his companions.

"Thank Orma you're alright," Yara said as he joined them, a relieved smile not quite displacing her uneasiness of the body that lay a few yards away from them.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Forge huffs and puffs from the running Gears followed the killer to a building in the Cockscombe district. I know where if you'll follow me officers. Forge is flushed with excitement and looks discheveled.

 

[loxmyth]

OoC: Argent, the guards have left, but Gears saw them go. Do you want to go after them, or do something else?