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Comments
Alex's [D], plus start lying yourself. Say that you have dirt on him, or you're with the Inquisition (or a similar organization) and bad things will happen if he doesn't fess up.
We should pull that as an ace if things get really bad, or if we can weave that lie convincingly. That kind of lie could really come back to bite us, so I'd rather we do things gently before we start making larger claims.
Alex's D.
[Alex's D wins again. I'm considering just adding a new option to every post saying [whatever Alex says.]]
You mentally mark down the area you're in. It's a fairly distinctive alleyway- it's relatively clean, the door in here is thick and well-maintained, and there are few alleys with grates in them.
You turn around and head back to the market stall, finishing off your peach as you're it. You consider cleaning off the stone and slipping it into your pocket- you can extract a deadly poison from peach stones. In the end, you throw it away- while you could extract a poison from it, you couldn't extract enough to kill anyone but a child without going through far too much effort.
You head back to the fruit stall you had bought peaches from before and slip your remaining peach back into your pocket, before buying two oranges (one silver and four pennies). Then, you head over to the stall next to you.
It's a strange stall. It's filled with dozens of little contraptions in a glass case- each no larger than the size of your palm.
"Do you see anything that interests you?" a voice asks. Looking up, you see the stall owner looking down at you.
He is a tall, spindly man. His hair is short, and you can't see any body or facial hair on him anywhere. His fingers, tapping against the desk, are long and thin.
"What are these?" you ask, sounding interested.
"These?" he asks, peering over to look. "These are simple machines. They are useful little tools- most of them tell the time."
You raise your brows. That is genuinely interesting. "How accurate are they?" you ask.
"They are nearly completely accurate," he says, smiling. His teeth are yellow, but straight. "They are off by mere minutes each day- simply turning the little dial on the side of each back once every two weeks should keep them accurate for some time to come."
"You must be very skilled to make these," you say admiringly.
His chest puffs out self-importantly. Inside, you shudder.
"Of course!" he exclaims. "I am, of course, Master Ryder, the greatest master of clockwork machinery in this land!"
You nod, looking appropriately impressed. "What can you make?" you ask.
"Almost anything," he boasts. "Clocks, water pumps, self-propelled boats, anything!"
That is actually impressive. Also mostly useless, seeing as there's an entirety of two rivers in the country that are big enough to move on using boats, but impressive nonetheless.
"That is impressive," you remark. "Can you make anything else?"
He nods eagerly. "Oh, yes," he says. "Many things. I can make noise-amplifiers, self-sustained water boilers, self-sustained heating apparatuses, and even a machine that can heat water to specific temperatures!"
That last one truly is impressive. You don't have to fake your impressed look this time.
"Wow," you murmur. "You are very skilled, aren't you?"
He nods self-importantly, gesturing at his work. "You can see my handiwork here," he boasts.
You look down at the items, not letting him see your face. "Even the city guard is interested in your work," you remark.
When he doesn't reply for a few moments, you look up at him. He is looking warily around.
"Please don't mention that," he hisses once he has ascertained that nobody heard you. "Look- that's not on the up-and-up, okay? Don't go mentioning that around, I could get in some serious trouble."
You look curiously at him. "Okay," you say slowly. "I won't mention it to anyone."
He relaxes. "Thank you," he mutters.
"What is it?" you ask curiously. "That you're working on for the guardsman."
He looks excited for a second, before a guarded look spreads over his face. He gestures you over, then starts hissing in your ear.
"Fully animated statues," he hisses excitedly. "It's a first- they're regular statues, but made of iron. They're plated in gold, but they don't rust- the Hand provided the money for that. They are able to move like people can- each of their joints can be manipulated with a ball-and-joint mechanism, allowing them to move right away."
You look shocked. "Can they move around on their own?" you ask.
He shakes his head. "They're not alive," he stresses. "They're just able to be moved like regular statues never could."
You spend a few minutes more talking with him, moving the subject back to safer grounds, before you walk away, your thoughts whirling.
[A] Head back to Rory now. He needs to know this.
Head back to the alley and head through that door. You need to investigate this. Now.
[C] Head back to the alley and head through that grate. You need to investigate this. Now.
[D] Something else. (Please specify what.)
A. This seems bad. We've basically got an industrial revolutionary selling stuff to bad people.
A. Going after this ourselves is risky, and with information about where Feila disappeared, Rory should be able to find more information via his own capacities as a constable. It isn't certain that this is corruption, but it's something that should be brought to the attention of Rory all the same. One way or another, he'll get to the bottom of this. If needs be, we'll help investigate this tidbit further, but for now we should play it safe.
I doubt it's corruption. Really, this appears to be at least one order of magnitude worse than corruption.
A.
We shouldn't make any assumptions. This is shady as hell and possibly illegal (but who can say?), but right now we only have a small amount of information to go off. Feila was seen talking to this engineer about the production of steampunk robots and then disappeared into an alleyway, and she is also under suspicion of corruption. Given that we're enacting the medieval equivalent of an undercover police investigation, we ought to be looking for conclusive evidence rather than relying on speculation and pieces of information that don't add up. So I suggest we remain wary of drawing conclusions before we have sufficient evidence for something like a court of law.
Right now, we don't even know what the robots do -- they're not automatons, but metal statues with ball joints. The engineer didn't like his dealing with the guard much, but this is just a morsel of information to work off and requires much more investigation before any conclusion can be drawn. We're both in support of reporting back to Rory, of course, but I think we should be clear about the difference between reasonably suspicion and actual evidence. And right now, we only have a tiny bit of dirt on Feila.
Correction: Clockpunk.
It's not steampunk, as steampunk would imply that the machines work off of steam power. The machines do not work off of electricity as such.
I stand corrected.
The only means I could think of from the magic system thus far to turn the statues into actual robots would involve binding ghosts to them. That would be very time-consuming and dangerous.
And yeah, we don't have dirt on Feila specifically, but we know that there is a massive pile of dirt in her general vicinity, and whatever it is needs to be investigated now.
[Three votes for A; you're returning to Rory.]
The first thing you do is return back to the tavern. It would be kind of embarrassing to forget Lien on your way back.
Once you're safely out of the tavern and away from the main street of the district, you ask Lien if he had learned anything.
"I didn't learn much," he admits. "I did hear one person talking about someone he called 'The Hand', but he didn't say much."
"What did he say, exactly?" you ask. It's probably too much to hope for to hope that Lien remembered exactly what the person said.
"He said something about the criminals around turn lessening their activities lately," he replies. "He mentioned The Hand specifically, saying that The Hand has been calling burglars in lately."
"Thanks," you mutter.
You mull that over as you head back to the constabulary's office.
It's a long walks back, but you pull out and eat your second peach as you walk, enjoying Lien's envious scowl. You bask in it for a while before you toss him one of the oranges you bought, and begin peeling and eating it.
When you arrive back at the constabulary's, you toss the orange peel in the wastebin and head upstairs. You ascertain that nobody is in there before you knock on the door.
There's a hesitant pause, and Rory's voice rings out. "Come in."
You head in and sit down on the chair. Rory calms down, moving his hand from the hilt of his baton. Lyara is standing behind him. She has changed what she was wearing- she has lost the baton that was hanging across her waist in favour of a long knife, and a crossbow was hanging from her back, secured to a strap hanging across there.
"Hello, Urien," Rory greets you.
You incline your head at him. "Hello," you murmur softly. "I return with news on Feila Tachsten."
Rory nods complacently. "Indeed?" he asks mildly.
You nod.
"I was unable to ascertain whether Feila was susceptible to taking bribes," you state. "However, I did oversee a meeting between herself and a clockworker named Ryder. Feila enquired about whether he had it ready; Ryder replied that he did not. I attempted to follow Feila afterwards, but she entered an alley and disappeared. I did not know whether she had entered the door to a warehouse within the alleyway, or a grate leading underground, and I had no wish to follow her in my current state-" you indicate your bandaged shoulder- "due to the risk of injury."
Rory nods slowly. "Were you able to ascertain what the clockworker was making for her?" he asks.
You grimace. "I believe so," you state slowly. "The clockworker has built a remarkable number of useful inventions, but the pertinent one was a statue. Upon inquiry, he told me that the statue was made of solid iron, and plated with gold so it does not rust. Apparently, The Hand paid for this gold."
Rory sighs and leans back in his chair. "I see," he murmurs.
You wait a few moments.
He sits back up and leans towards you. "I may have a favour to ask you later," he begins. "However, in the meantime, I would ask you to conclude your investigation with Osten."
You nod. "I will," you tell him.
He leans back, looking troubled. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention," he murmurs.
You slip out the door and head down, out of the constabulary's office.
---
The walk to the district Osten is patrolling doesn't take very long.
The area itself is not very crowded. It is mostly a residential area; houses are laid out in neat rows, with streets roughly a dozen feet wide- wide enough to accomodate carts carrying building materials to build the houses. Children are playing out the front of their houses, and there is barely an adult in sight.
[A] How do you wish to proceed?
Bribe one of the kids to tell Osten that you stole something. Then see if you can bribe Osten out of it. Choose a relatively poor child, but not one too poor -- it has to believable that we would steal something from them.
Like Alex's suggestion. BUT. Try to minimize the number of children who know we're lying, and if any overhear it, give them small bribes too. We can't afford to have one of the others tell the truth.
Punch Osten in the face!
You walk down the street, looking for any children. Children are much easier to bribe than their adult counterparts, and cheaper to boot.
You examine the children on the street, looking for someone suitable. It's kind of hard to tell which are suitable; most of them are dressed in similar clothing (simple green or brown cloth, and a swathe of grey cloth around their heads to protect them from the sun) and similarly grubby.
You eventually decide on one- a boy, probably around eleven years old. His clothes are newer than the others. Approaching him, he looks up at you.
You kneel down to look him in the eye. "Would you be so kind as to do me a favour?" you ask kindly.
He looks at you. "Whatcha favour?" he asks.
You pull four silvers out of your pockets. "I just need you to go visit Osten and tell him that I stole something from you," you explain. "You can keep these silvers if you do that for me, okay?"
The kid's grin is very wide. "Wow," he whispers. "Okay! I'll go find him!"
---
Half an hour later, the child still isn't back, and you're growing impatient.
You grit your teeth and begin to walk through the streets of the area, looking around to try and catch a glimpse of the child.
You can't seem to spot him among the houses. However, there is a rather large area among them which is undeveloped, covered in soft grass and trees. Many children like to play in this area, and nobody has the heart to tear it down to build new houses.
You head over there and begin snooping around. There are many children around, but none of them are the child you paid to look for Osten.
And then, of course, everything goes wrong. You spot a foot, sticking out from a bush.
Ignoring the sense of foreboding that washes over you, you pull on the foot with some difficulty. You can't pull it yourself, but with Lien's help, you're able to pull the body right out of the bushes.
One glimpse at the body, dressed in a guardsman's outfit, tells you it is probably Osten.
There are no weapons laying around in an obvious manner, but there's a rather... large hole in his back. Dried blood surrounds the hole and has covered his back, although your movements have disturbed the body enough for some slight amounts of fresh blood to begin to leak out.
You feel faintly ill.
[A] What are you going to do now?
And... I apologize for the weakness of that post. I couldn't think of a better way for you to stumble upon the body, sorry.
A: Examine the body with minimal interference, then report to Rory.
Damn. This is tough. I'd like for us to stay and guard the body while Lien reports back, or for Lien to guard the body while we report back, but either way, people are likely to accuse us of the murder if we do nothing.
So I'd say we should take some notes about the state of Osten's body and then, essentially, raise the alarm. If it's made known that a guardsman has been killed by cloak-and-dagger (so to speak), then the information should get to Rory anyway. We can see him when we're sure the corpse is in the holding of trustworthy guards or medical professionals.
So I suppose we should do these things, in this order:
If we can keep the body in Rory's possession, that would be ideal. We are, after all, a hedgewitch. A (relatively) fresh corpse is a powerful conduit for necromancy, and we could use our skills to gather information from the deceased. That may not be direct, but we may be able to use necromancy to divine the nature of Osten's death, when it happened, what sort of person did it and so on and so forth.
or what alex said
Except t his bit. Remember how well that went last time? That was under better conditions than are available within the next year.
Another post, just to clear this up:
You are a hedgewitch, but, more importantly, you're a ritualist. They are two separate vocations; while many hedgewitches learn the basics of rituals and how they can be used to heal people, you have learned under a skilled ritualist.
It is probably important to keep this in mind. You are as you are because you are a hedgewitch; your main weapon is a silver knife, which can be used in the treatment of wounds and to prepare herbal ingredients, and you wear a long, thick cloak because it provides cushioning and warmth when travelling in the woods outside of cities.
Other ritualists do not advertise themselves the same way. Ritualists can also be knights dressed in chain armour, or court jesters who act as spymasters and assassins, or bakers, or anyone. They rarely know how to heal people; they rarely know as much about the Fae and the woods as you do; they often know more about how to fit in with society to disguise their talent; and so on, so forth.
^^ We don't need to be so extensive, though. Any kind of additional information would be helpful, and even a minor necromantic ritual could help us uncover more clues. All we need is for the ritual to clarify a few points. Then we could use logic -- and the expertise of Rory and his loyal guardsmen -- to narrow down the factors involved.
^ Noted.
^Oh, okay.
it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.
Anyway, the body's fresh. Let's eat it!
[A]: What CU and Alex said.
I don't see much more to say here. I'd try whatever magic can be done in a controlled manner, once we're done with the immediate affair.
[Go with Alex's option again.]
"Lien." You grab his attention. "I need you to go back to the constabulary's office and get Rory."
Lien nods sharply behind you and turns around. You put him out of your mind already and begin examining the body.
The wound is quite large- pulling out your knife and measuring the wound against it, it's several times longer than you could make with the knife. You can't quite tell how deep the wound is, but judging by the position of the wound- on the left side of the man's chest, to the side of his spine- you guess that the wound went deep enough to pierce Osten's heart immediately. The knife was then torn through the body- either the killer deliberately tore a large hole in the guard's body, or the killer was somehow preventing Osten from falling forwards, and the knife tore through Osten as his body collapsed.
The blood around the wound has dried, and little bits of dirt, leaves and twigs have stuck to it. The body had to have been deposited while the wound was still fresh, and dried in the meantime.
If you don't miss your guess, Osten was probably killed early this morning, when he arrived for his patrol. That would have been early enough that few people would have been around on the streets, which would have meant less of a chance for anyone to spot the killer with Osten's body.
This area is far enough away from the fields that this grove was likely the best area to dump Osten's body- this grove, or an alley.
You cut a strip of cloth off of your cloak and dab it in the blood running down his back. Chances are it'll dry before you can get back to the inn and secure the blood, but any chance is better than none.
After that, you crouch down next to the body and start examining it. Why? Why was Osten killed?
Unfortunately, you can't tell just from examining his body- at least, not before Rory arrives, flanked by Lyara, Ari and Lien.
"What happened here?" he asks sharply, behind you.
"I don't know," you say simply. "I located his body here some time ago. He appears to have died some hours ago- his blood has dried. I remained with the body to guard it against any unwanted intrusions before you arrived."
Rory sighs behind you. "I see," he murmurs.
"Would you be averse to helping me take the body back to the office?" he asks you. "We can examine it further."
[A] Lien and yourself will help him take the body back to the constabulary's office. You need to examine the body in a safe location where you can do some rituals to help you.
No. Lien and yourself will remain here for some time, and attempt to ascertain why Osten was killed.
[C] Lien will help take the body back to the constabulary's office. You will stay here and attempt to ascertain why Osten was killed.
[D] You'll help take the body back to the constabulary's office. Lien will stay here and attempt to ascertain why Osten was killed.
[E] Something else. (Please specify what.)
[C]
[A]