Oleander and Brother Pi
Oleander notes the anomaly and think to himself...
~Not that it is odd to see a dwarf with a broom, but there is definitely something more to that one.~
Oleander pauses at another stall, trying to appear natural while also trying to discern more information about the interesting dwarf.
"Pleased to meet you, master Zalachia," the dwarf replies to the merchant. "I am Brother Pi."
The pleasant smile does not leave the dwarf's face as he continues, "A broom is exactly the right tool to clean away scum. And I do not require payment for doing the right thing."
Well, how refreshing to meet an adventurer with a noble heart," Master Zalachia replies.
"So often I have had to make deals with rascals in order to deal with other rascals. To have a holy man such as yourself take a look would be much appreciated. Which of the city's temples are you affiliated with?"
Looking around, Pi's gaze immediately finds Oleander's.
Upon being noticed, Oleander makes a quick amiable wave and smiles. He continues to wait where he is.
Master Zalachia notes the elven man as well.
"A... friend of yours?"
---
Lingering for a moment, he eventually turns back to the merchant.
"So where can I start?"
Well, if you want to take a look at my shop and see whether you can find some some other details that were missed by my staff, I would appreciate it and would be willing to give you a small discount on my wares, if you can bring the troublemakers to justice. And, please, call me Anikagar, or simply Anik."
Master Zalachia looks at Oleander.
"And for your, uhm, friend as well, if he is interested."
"Father," a feminine voice says from behind Anikagar.
"I could show Brother Pi where the marking were on our shop." A great young beauty, for a human, steps out from behind a thin shawl of silk that hangs in an archway that leads to a subtly hidden back area of the stall. The young woman is likely in her mid-twenties and fiery red hair and a pale complexion. Her facial features match her father's but are more delicate.
"My daughter, Ketisa," the merchant introduces her to Brother Pi.
"She has a keen eye for cloth."
"And for other things, father," Ketisa says.
"Was it not I who realized the markings weren't just random splotches of bile." She looks at Pi.
"There was a purpose to them." She notes Oleander's presence with mild interest.
"I could show him, uhm, them, exactly where the marks were on the wall and the shapes they took. There might even be some traces left."
"I would hope that Arinitam would do a better job than that," Anikagar replies.
"It is possible that there could be traces that would be invisible to sight. Blood tends to leave such invisible marks."
Anikagar sighs.
"Very well, take them to the shop and show them what you can, but after that, have Arinitam answer their questions. I will need you back here, understood?"
"Yes, father," Ketisa bows gracefully to her father before stepping out of the stall. She deftly slips through a narrow crack between stalls. She stands half a foot taller than Brother Pi. her clothes are of the finest silk and enhance what the gods gave her. She ties back her hair and beckons Brother Pi and Oleander to follow her.
She leads Pi (and Oleander, if he follows) to a shop that sits just south of Coin Street on Magma Avenue North. It is a large building that sits adjacent to another shop called Tygot’s Old Things. (Across the avenue are the dormitories of the nearby Temple of Bast.) The front of the shop faces out onto Magma Avenue and a large sign hangs to one side of a double door. The sign simply reads
Threads of Destiny with no adornments.
Ketisa points to the doors and says,
"There were splotches on the doors, but they were more random. It was like someone had thrown... well, poop against them, as a sort of sick joke."
She then leads them around to the northwestern side of the building and points below two low windows.
"It was here that we found the markings that were more than just random splotches. There was form to them with some lewd pictures as well. You can still smell it, even after we used lavender to mask the stench."
She coughs and covers her mouth with her sleeve while tracing out an invisible outline along the wall.
"The marks were almost runic but malformed like whoever drew them had limited knowledge of what they were writing. My father thinks they weren't meant to be a true language, but I'm sure they meant something." She steps away from the building and points to the adjacent shop across the narrow alleyway.
"There were some markings over here too, but Mister Kesortane removed them from his house early this morning before I got a chance to see them."
OOC: Brother Pi can tell that her tracings on the wall do appear to look runic, and he wonders if the marks could be related to dwarven runes. If so, they would have been very crude and would have been gibberish in the Dwarven tongue. He knows that other races often use dwarven runes for their own languages, but if that is the case here, he doesn't know which race could have made such mockery of his language.
There isn't enough left 'offal' on the walls for Oleander to use Decipher Script to figure out what was written there. If he can find a way to make the invisible blood visible, you can roll a check. But, make a Spellcraft check (DC 20), and post the results in the OOC thread.
