The Hunted (DM: IronSky, Judge: ???)

The Hunted: Day 1, Hour 2, Minute 32

Krav, Earth, and Xander investigate the maid's room while Mab tinkers with the brass contraption in the basement and Devinihm and Raijin carefully examine the main crime scene.

[sblock=Xander]Your first instinct would be to assume the single deep stab wound into her chest was the result of a knife blade. Then you notice that the wound curves considerably, implying a curved blade. Examination of the bottom of the wound though shows tearing and bruising. Your final conclusion is something drove a single foot-long, razor-sharp talon or claw into her chest, puncturing the heart and killing her in seconds.[/sblock]

[sblock=Earth]You examine the woman and determine she probably awoke, saw who or whatever it was that killed her standing over her, and curled into the fetal position as she was dying. Whatever it was she saw clearly terrified her. Under the blanket, she is wearing a pale blue nightgown stained with blood. It looks as though whatever killed her stabbed her through the thick blanket and nightgown.[/sblock]

[sblock=Mab]This contraption is an ingenious mix of mechanics, alchemy, and magic. It looks as though it draws water from deep underground and pulls it up where it is separated into a hot and cold tank. A system of pipes activated by a dial cause air to be drawn in from outside, blowing over the cold tank and through the aerated pipes running through the main rooms, releasing cool though slightly damp air.

Other pipes run from the hot tank into the main bathroom, ending at a giant brass tub that presumably fills to the brim with hot water at the twist of a knob! It also supplies water to the kitchen where hot or cold water may be accessed via waterspouts in brass basins, providing hot or cold water straight to the kitchens as needed.[/sblock]

[sblock=Raijin]You examine the mantle, discovering several points of interest:
* All of the bowls and chalices have similar markings, implying they are all from the same location despite their variety of styles, materials, and apparent ages.
* There is a perfectly circular spot clear of dust and blood in the center of mantle, with enough room on either side that a wide bowl could probably fit there.
* You spot the man's decapitated head lying behind his desk. His eyes are wide open with shock and a hint of fear and his expression seems slightly resigned, as if he was perhaps expecting this?
* You notice that the blood-spattered picture over the mantle has the dead man in it standing in the middle of some other figures that you can't make out with all the blood over them. They appear to be on the Daunton docks. The man also has his hands extended as though he's holding something, but what exactly is obscured by blood.[/sblock]

[sblock=Devinihm]You examine the desk, finding mostly dry accounting sheets, log reports, shipping manifests, crop yield figures, tax documents, warehouse inventories, and the like. Most are in a clean, technical, precise hand. One of the sheets lying on the floor catches your eye, however and, looking closer, it has something scrawled hastily on it.

It seems to be a partially complete ledger with a few fast-jotted lines written: "one is here, i dont now which but it has to be related to dartanian yesterday i heard it kill justeus downstairs and its coming up if somone finds this warn dartan and the others its - gods..."[/sblock]
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Raijin studies the mantle and picture for a while. There seems to be bowl or chalice missing from here. Look, this picture was taken at the docks and he seems to be holding something. The sorcerer moves over to the body of the man. He is the only one still visible in the picture. His expression seems to be more than just shock, perhaps resignation at a fate brought on himself.
 

"Well dearies, I've cracked the mystery!," declares Auntie Mab, returning from the basement with a triumphant smile on her face. "See these brass pipes here draw hot water from deep, deep underground, so as these, um, folks can take a nice hot bath... or could if they were still alive I suppose. Anyhow, when they drilled the holes for the pipes they must have drilled straight down into the abyss! How else can you explain the hot water?," she asks, eying the other party members shrewdly.

"Obviously when they drilled the hole for the pipes they must have knocked the bazzlebaum on the head, incurring its terrible fury,"
she says nodding her head as though she's just made an incredibly wise pronouncement.

"Ah, yes and then the fell beast, having murdered this poor nouveau riche family for their calamitous pipe drilling, punished them even further by making off with their prized bowl," the old woman adds after hearing Raijin's thoughts on the picture.

Perched on the batty old lady's shoulder, Tristram rolls his eyes as he listens to Auntie Mab's elaborate theories about what is very clearly a simple, if somewhat expensive, plumbing fixture. Tiring of his mistress' silly theories the rat scampers off to the master bedroom suite to help those pursuing more fruitful lines of investigation. He takes an immediate interest in the desk, scampering around and in all the drawers, looking for any potential hidden documents, pouches, and compartments, drawing on years of experience hording and hiding things in Old Mabbeth's kitchen.

Thievery (1d20+11=27)
 

OOC: Beat me to it!

Illarion comes back to the group and examines the scene. He then looks over the papers, but pays more attention to gold pieces, carefuly counting each stack and guessing how many were before falling down.

He then compares given number of stacks with number of people on the picture and number of the killed and comes to the theory:

He also carefuly examines them to see if they have strange heralds or other markings that would indicate their origin.

While looking, he lists again location(s) of the murders and tries to draw rough map of the sites in his head to see if they form some form of the picture

OOC: Now I just need few concrete facts. Iron Sky, please provide the above :)


Thievery (1d20+3=18) - maybe few of the coins slip into his robes. By accident of course.

Streetwise (1d20+5=17) - city map in the head
 

OOC: Beat me to it!

Illarion comes back to the group and examines the scene. He then looks over the papers, but pays more attention to gold pieces, carefuly counting each stack and guessing how many were before falling down.

He then compares given number of stacks with number of people on the picture and number of the killed and comes to the theory:

He also carefuly examines them to see if they have strange heralds or other markings that would indicate their origin.

While looking, he lists again location(s) of the murders and tries to draw rough map of the sites in his head to see if they form some form of the picture

OOC: Now I just need few concrete facts. Iron Sky, please provide the above :)


Thievery (1d20+3=18) - maybe few of the coins slip into his robes. By accident of course.

Streetwise (1d20+5=17) - city map in the head
 

Devinihm, wilden druid

"The prey knew one another," Devinihm announces, standing from where he's been examining something on the floor. He holds up a piece of parchment and reads it aloud:

one is here, i dont now which but it has to be related to dartanian yesterday i heard it kill justeus downstairs and its coming up if somone finds this warn dartan and the others its - gods..

"We know these people are connected now. And for good or ill we know there is more than one hunter..."
 

The Hunted: Day 1, Hour 2, Minute 35

As the group begin sharing their discoveries with one another, Illarian trailing off as he tries to find a pattern, and Mab "solving" the case, Tristram goes scampering off, bringing Mab something shiny.

[sblock=Mab]Tristram seems to have found a ring that was tucked away somewhere. Engraved on it is Elean. If you had to guess, it looks to be a wedding ring.[/sblock]

[sblock=Illarian]How did that 10gp get there?

Anyway, there was probably several hundred gold here one quick estimation, arranged in a dozen-or-so rough stacks on the edge of the desk. The coins seem to be a pretty standard Dauntonian mix of coins from all over the world due to the wide array of traders coming here from other lands. Nothing about the coins themselves seems to indicate a pattern amongst them, at least on quick examination.

There are four murder locations: One near the tavern in the middle of the city, one on the docks at the edge, one in the hills on the opposite edge, and one not too far from the docks in one of the seedier parts of town. Again, no pattern seems to be apparent.[/sblock]
 

OOC: Would disregarding the tavern and taking in the account Dartagnian's residence work out?

Illarion disregards his latest theory, thinking instead of the latest home purchaces he heard about that came close to one another (as in the group)

OOC: roll if you see fit for this or use the last roll if you think this is the same. Thanks
 

Rysethynn, feeling quite out of place in all of this, listens to the theories the others are putting together.

"A missin' bowl or cup? Weren't anythin' tha' small as woulda fit in tha' other fella's secret linin'. He had somethin' flatter. Coulda been coin I s'ppose, but I'm thinkin' it were some kinda paper. Maybe t'was a map o' some kind?"

She takes the picture from Devinihm and examines it herself. Although there are no other people in the picture, perhaps there is something else there to give her a clue. There could be a hand holding something else, or just something odd on the ground that could help them solve this puzzle.

OOC: Sorry, poor Rys is a bit out of her element here. Perception is her only really useful investigative skill.
 

"Why, what's that you've got there, Tristram love?," Auntie Mab asks as the rat comes scurrying back with his prize.

"Will, you look at that! It's a wedding ring, an a pretty one too. Looks like there's something engraved on the inside...," the old woman says squinting her eyes at the fine lettering, "It says Elean..."

The elderly fortune teller ponders this new find for a moment, then muses alound, "Let's see, so we've got a mangled butler, and impaled maid, that poor gentleman torn in two upstairs, and a woman's wedding ring, but no woman to go with it... Devinihm, dearie?," Auntie Mab turns to the Wilden, grabbing his attention with a tap on the shoulder, "Did that poor man upstairs have a ring on his finger? If so, I wonder where his wife is. Did one of the bazzlebaums take its revenge upon her as well? Or maybe they were estranged, and maybe she knows something about the beasts and why they were after her husband and poor Mr. Dartanian."

"Or maybe this is someone else's ring entirely, in which case why did that gentleman have it hidden away in his desk?..." frustrated by an abundance of questions and a dearth of answers, Auntie Mab pockets the ring and heads upstairs to check for a wedding ring on the bisected man's finger.

OOC: Perception (1d20+6=18) to pick up any other important details about the corpse while looking for a potential wedding ring, and making a brief search of its pockets.

Also, what is Auntie Mab's guess as to the market value of the ring?
 

Remove ads

Top