Fasa the Guvnor - Dead by murder
Tenscore the hardhead - Dead by murder
Lennie the Godsmen - Dead by murder
Kesto - Runs the athar bookstore
Sir Cleave - assistant of Kesto
Harlique - Raving woman who has visions of the murders
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Reconvene with Kylie
We ran onto Kylie on the road. She told us there's six murders now: the three we already know about, and Fasa the Guvnor (member of the Fraternity of Order), Tenscore the hardhead, Lennie the Godsmen.
The Fraternity of Order is offering a reward for the capture or killing of the person responsible and proof the individual or group were responsible. ~10,000 jinx.
Kylie taught us the rule of three:
The rule of three - everything comes in three
The other two rules are:
Rule of rings - everything is a ring
Center of the universe - whereever you are, you're the center of the universe
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Friendly fiend shop
Wears bladed head icon around his neck.
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Commerce library
studying late a few nights ago. He was studying scrolls pertaining to the topics of planar trade consortium laws.
The guy was killed in the court library. In the library, all the books and shelves were pushed to the corner of the library. The cleaning people were cleaning nonstop for two days.
Beretta found the book "Powers and Demipowers" because the cleaners were endlessly cleaning this book. There's blood stains on it - it's on one chapter, called Divine Ascension. It discusses how mortals can rise to become Powers.
Some harmonium officers come in an question us. I tell them we're a member of the Athar.
The Harmonium officers tell us that the murder victims died of slicing wounds.
[We later found out this was the 4th murder.]
[We later found out this was the 4th murder.]
Kellock the grey was found dead in an Athar bookstore, called The Parted Veil, found on Forgotten Lane. The store is run by Kestow Brighteyes.
Kesto is the book owner; he is an athar. His assistant is Sir Cleave. Sir Cleave is a bodek, an undead creature who comes back from death in the abyss. He is impressive because he kept his own mind.
When Kesto opened his shop in the morning, he found Kellock's dead body. Kellock was a githzaria. His face had an image of terror. He seemed to have six slash wounds on his body. There was a strange parchment note pinned to his shredded tunic. He was spread across a table with books on law and order spread out beneath him and beside him.
On the ground, there's a footprint in some talc powder. We took a vial of some of it for future reference.
[I draw a picture of the boot print in the talc, below:
___(|'. `\
(|'. `\ ; | | : | ; | | ; |.' | |.' |-. '. /`-. '.:_ `'-. jgs \ :_ `'-.----' `"""` `-----'
_ .---. (_/-.__.' _ __ (_\-' '. `---'
]
We caught Kesto in a lie. Kesto refused to be truthful. We insisted that Kesto tell the truth and he refused to.
Mr. Small picked up Kesto by his neck and pulled back my fist to punch him. This intimated the shit out of Kesto. "No, no, if I don't keep my bumbox shut, he's going to come back and get me. He'll cut off my tongue and hands so I can't cast spells."
Does this sort of being keep a bargain?
"YES!"
After much rigamorole,
"So, I actually arrived much earlier than I told the Harmonium. When I walked in, the killer was standing beside poor Kellock. The killer was standing there with his sword out and Kellock was already pretty much dead. It was quite strange, this red glow flowed from Kellock's body to the killer. I don't know what that was. Yes, it was a sparkly red glow that creeped out of his body, slid up the sword, and made the killer glow bright for just one moment.
"After that, the killer saw me, grabbed me, and stared at me for a while. He told me to keep quiet, or he'd come back and cut off my hands and my tongue - [choking back tears] then I couldn't cast any spells.
"The man: He was tall and strong. A human. Wild black hair and firey eyes. White dust coated his black boots. [He gives us further details so we now have a GOOD description of the killer]
"The murder weapon. It was a longsword; I didn't get a good look at it. He wore very fine chainmail. No visible faction symbols."
He signs to certify that all of the above testimony the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
"He later gave us additional information: Three nearby warehouses have talc: Grossif's Paints, Pendram's Parchments & Papers, Loggue's Bath Powder." It might be worth checking those places.
After much work, bribe a guard to take Kesto to the inn in Ironridge. We give Kesto all the information necessary for his safe return (assuming he isn't hunted and killed by the murderer).
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We decide to go to Pendram's Parchments & Papers. While looking for Kylie to take us there, some tiefling wearing leather pants and shirt, started dancing with a haunted look in her eyes. She says that Mr. Small will fight the murderer (tonight) and that she saw the murderer. "Listen to the chant cutters" She closed her eyes and continued to dance in place. "I dreamed of the murderer last night. He's a barmy like me, from the house on the dead-end street. I saw him at the bake shop across the street from the prison. He waited as Sigil grew dark and fell asleep, watching the prison with hateful eyes. When the watch called out "antipeak and all is well. The killer killed the mercy killer, red death, blood. 7 slashes of a slashing sword. He laughs and another man dies."
We ask, can you remember the deaths that happened last night?
"It started with an old human man. I think he was a Godsman. The killer made one massive cut across his abdomen. There was so much blood...so much blood. And he laughed. He pins up parchment to the victim. The glowing red sparlking glow from the body...that was the first one.....
"The second was a young bariar woman. He sliced her two times, but otherwise the same.
"The next was a tiefling woman. She had such a terrible look of fear etched on her face as he sliced her three times with his blade."
(Do you remember how he wrote on the parchment?)
"That's right, he had a quill. He used the victim's blood to write on the parchment."
"A human man who was reading books was slashed four times. So much the same...the terror.... the killer laughing...."
"The 5th was particularly terrible. He was another human man, he wore red armor. He was going down an alley. He was slashed with one shallow cut across the forehead. A final slash across his gut. Five cuts in all. The killer called out as he wrote on the parchment: 'There is no safety in order, because Chaos is everywhere!' He took two boards and tied them together and hanged the man from it in the street.
"Last night, another guy reading books, slashed six times. There was some little gnome who came in at the end."
(What is your name?)
"My name is Harlique."
"My name is Harlique."
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