Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="NiTessine" data-source="post: 354067" data-attributes="member: 475">And the final installment of Chapter III! Sorry for taking so long with it.---------------------------The five adventurers burst from their cabins. As they soon ascertained, the source of the cry was one of the nobles, Marya von Hedon."Hans is dead!" she cried as she ran down the hallway, her eyes large with terror. Franz grasped the woman by the arm, and after some vigorous shaking and demanding questions, calmed her down enough to get her to lead them to the body.The cabin was a large one, almost opulent, with carpets on the floors and a great bed, with silken sheets. On the bed lay the late Hans von Hedon, his eyes bulging out and black tongue jutting from his mouth, leaking green drool. There was a greenish cast to his pale skin."Poison," Fisibbei said, after a mere glance at the body. "And not any natural one, either. Alchemical one, I'm thinking, and a strong one at that."*  *  *An hour later they were in the captain's office. The white-bearded man was pacing back and forth in front of them."This be a really filthy piece of business, this is," he spoke. "There's me reputation as a skipper at stake, here."He turned to look at the adventurers."I want ye to find that scurvy dog who did this afore we reach Marienburg. Ye'll be well paid, and I think the lords high and mighty have a few crowns in it fer ye, too. 'Less they killed the man themselves, that is." Versenkung barked a bitter laugh, and waved them out of his office.And so, the investigations started. Franz assumed a leadership position so naturally that nobody thought to even question him. They began to work immediately, as they were only four days from Marienburg. Franz took it upon himself to do the interrogations, as he'd worked with a troop of witch hunters in his earlier days, and picked up a few things on how to get people to admit things. Frederich went off to question the guards and the sailors. Fisibbei, Kase, and Khaelas rummaged through the room, searching for clues.Lady Marya was not very forthcoming with information. Waking up in the middle of the night to a strange smell, and finding her husband's face, contorted in agony next to him had been a rather shocking experience. Lady Marya's mother-in-law, the matronly Gertrud von Hedon was vehemently opposed to Franz's interrogation, and had to be forcibly removed from the room by the cleric.In the end, Franz gleaned little from the woman. Hans and Marya had retired for the night soon after the adventurers. They'd slept peacefully for a while, and then Marya had awoken to a sharp smell. After that, she'd woken up the ship with her screams of terror.*  *  *Frederich's inquiries with the ship's crew and the nobles' guards were marginally more fruitful. One of the deck guards mentioned he'd heard a splash from the poop deck's direction, but when he'd gone to investigate, he'd seen nothing. One of the guard who'd patrolled on the lower decks had thought he'd heard steps in the shadows, but had seen nothing.Fisibbei and the elves worked hard in the room, investigating the different manners Lord von Hedon might have been poisoned. They scraped lint off the carpet, went through the sheets with a fine comb, analysed the strange grease found on the doorknob, individually opened and tested each and every bottle and jar in Lady Marya's cosmetics chest, and even darkened the room to see if there were any cracks in the ceiling or walls. In the end, they came up with nothing. Kase tried to analyse the drool from Hans' body, but could not divine anything from it. They came to the inevitable conclusion that Hans had been poisoned at the dinner table. And that meant the guilt lay upon to shoulders of one of his kinsmen.*  *  *Franz, knowing that inquiring about the family's internal matters from the adult family members would only alert them to the fact that he knew something, requested permission to have a friendly little chat with Lisette, the eight-year-old daughter of Henrik von Hedon, Hans' brother. They were given an hour.Franz sat on the chair opposite the little girl. She was dressed in noble finery, just a smaller version of what her mother wore. She also wore makeup, and her hair had been carefully plaited. The priest thought she looked rather like a porcelain doll. After regarding the girl for a moment with a friendly smile, he raised up the small hammer that hung on a silver chain around his neck."You know what this is?" he asked."Yes. That is the symbol of Sigmar, the god. Our priest, Father Ulrich has one, too," the girl replied in the clipped accent of the Empire's upper class."Good. I am also a priest, like Father Ulrich. I am Father Franz. Now, I am going to ask you some questions about your family. You should answer truthfully. Father Ulrich has told you what happens to those who lie, hasn't he?""Yes. Father Ulrich says liars burn in the fires of hell. I never lie.""Good, very good… Now… Who were in the table at the dinner last night?""It was mom and dad, Uncle Hans and Aunt Marya, Uncle Bocher, Grandfather Adolf and Grandmother Gertrud, and Father Ulrich. Oh, and Canio. He's a bard, from Tilea. He's funny." The girl giggled."And who sat next to Hans?" Franz continued."Aunt Marya, and Uncle Bocher. Father Ulrich was sitting opposite to him.""What did you all eat and drink, by the way?""Pheasant. The adults drank wine and I and little Peter drank water.""How many bottles of wine were there in the table?""Many. All except Uncle Hans' Bretonnian wine were from our own yards.""Bretonnian wine?""Yes… Uncle Hans does not like the wine of our yards, so he drinks Bretonnian. Uncle Bocher and Uncle Hans had a fight over it a long time ago, when he insulted our vintners.""Did anyone else drink the Bretonnian wine?""No, I don't think so. Father Ulrich might have. He likes it, too.""Hmm… Thank you, Lisette… You have been a great help. You may go."The girl smiled, curtsied, and left. Franz departed soon after in a great hurry, to tell his comrades.</blockquote>

Verification