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Log: The Case Of The Gutted God

Page history last edited by Richard Hughes 14 years, 9 months ago

Run By: Soldier of Misfortune (3 xp)

Players: Longinus, Davon Timinus

Synopsis: The opening to a murder mystery - will the pair be able to discover what happened?

 

 

Swords!

 The village of Markuth is up in arms tonight. Torches burn and fires lick the night sky like old lovers, kissing the brim of the dome of the sky as smoke rises to block out the stars.

 It's the scene of a murder. But not just any murder; on the ground lies Markuth's very own Mar-Ru-Sakkai, the town's protector god. He'd always been faithful to the Immaculate Orders, given his tithes, and done his job perfectly; if he was a bit involved in his town's well-being, well, he was a well-liked and friendly god, and it couldn't be helped.

 But now his materialized corpse - or an effigy of it - lies on the ground, with human blood splattered all across the effigy in a very clear warning.

 

A young man walks down the well beaten road, smiling at a day well spent. His skin drying from his evening swim in a local watering hole, he starts looking for a farmer's barn to spend the night in. His nose notices before he does "Smoke, that can mean one of only a few things, and two of those are danger or free food, either way I think I found tonight entertainment" thinking to himself. Following this scent he comes upon the village and the assembled mass of people. He does his best to blend into the crowd to try and discover what is going on unobtrusively.

 

At the crest of the road, the sight of a sharp Fedora becomes visable, soon followed by the long coated figure of a man used to traveling mean streets, the halls of academia and everywhere in between. Tipping his Fedora, Longinus smiles a bit as he sees distant smoke, "Hrm." is all he says, and starts towards a distant sign of life.

 

The young male reaches the edge of the town and starts looking around for the commotion. He spots a man in a very interesting hat "He doesn't look like a Immaculate, there could be some interest in this one". With that he begins to shadow the man in hat.

 

(Judge) Davon Timinus rolls Dexterity + Stealth: [ -1- -1- 3 3 5 6 9 <10> ]

        Resulting in 3 successes.

(Judge) Longinus rolls Investigation + Perception: [ -1- -1- -1- 2 5 6 6 8 ]

        Resulting in 1 successes.

 

Not noticing the figure trailing him, Longinus ducks back between two small buildings, taking up position to watch the crime scene. "Damn." he says to himself. "Not exactly what I expected."

 

"Who are you?" The village elder asks, turning to look at Longinus and stare at him with eyes of an unnatural blue. "Are you here to help us?"

 

Reaching into his long coat, Longinus pulls out a small card. "Longinus, is the name. Private Investigation is the game." he say with a nod, handing the village elder the card. "You look like you have a problem here, maybe I can help. I make my living doing this." he says with a grin.

 

"They killed him," the elder says simply, "He has been our guardian for as long as anyone can remember - he even fathered me, and raised me as his own like a responsible god." The godblooded elder leans on his staff. "Mar-Ru-Sakkai's death is a blow that we all have shed tears for, each for our own reasons."

 "He was a kind god. He knew the names of everyone in the village, and always said hello, and knew everything that was going on," an old woman murmurs sadly.

 "He always made certain that bandits were chased away, that we had enough to eat, enough to drink, clean water, clean air. He was a good god," another man sighs.

 "And someone murdered him, and left this...this -abomination- in our town!" The elder murmurs. "Who would do such a thing? Why?"

 

In a display of utter lack of grace the young man seemingly stumbles from atop the roof, beside Longinus. "Ow...my back" he says rubbing his back, and gets up. "Hey, Longinus old buddy, why'd you leave town so quick?" he says with a look that reads to someone of your wiles 'run with it'. You also notice barely through the ruffles of his shirt collar a tattoo that you recognize as a artifact of some measure of protection.

 

Looking over the young man making his entrance, and frowns for a moment, before taking notice of his tattoo's. "Had things to do, places to go." he says calmly, before moving back to investigate the scene.

The scene is fairly horrifying. While the 'corpse' is not real, it is clearly quite an effective means of saying 'this god is dead'. The symbol - probably one important to the deity's faith - is scratched out with a massive X across it, and there's animal blood all over the place.

 

-= OOC =- Longinus says, "Burning for 3 successes."

(Judge) Longinus rolls Occult + Intelligence: [ 2 3 6 7 8 9 <10> <10> <10> <10> ]

        Resulting in 11 successes.

 

Davon Timinus walk's over to the pooch, reaches down and pets him. To anyone looking over the youth seems to be saying basic babble-speech to the dog. But every now and again the dog seems to wimper or bark back.

Davon Timinus in dog speech "So friend, what happened here with that corpse?"

 

"WOOFWOOFWOOOFWO-(Oh, what happened! I saw what happened! It was scary! It was really scary! They came out of nowhere and then jumped and stabbed and nowhere and it was scary!)

 

Longinus looks hard over the crime scene, checking everything from the lay of dust on the ground to the method of indent as the god's symbol of faith was damaged. For a moment, he's quiet. Looking back over to the village elder, "A sideral weapon killed this god." he says with a nod, really not expecting him to know what he's talking about. "This could get complicated." he says with a frown, while he reaches into his satchel, and pulls out a leather bound book with a strane sigil emblazoned on the front of it. Pulling out a pen, he starts sketching down a few notes.

 

Davon Timinus scratches the dog under the chin, "Thanks boy, did they leave any scents out of town? Which direction did they go?"

 

"FISHFISHFISHFISHFISH!" the dog urges, "Smelled like fish like fish like fish!"

 

"If you can help us solve this," the elder says quietly, "We'll happily share with you everything we have."

 

Davon Timinus says, "How many were there boy? Were they male or female"

 

"Male! Male male! Another male! Another male! Another male! A female!" the dog barks, "Male male male male male female female!" It bounces up and down, licking at Davon's cheek. "Food? Food food food?"

 

Thinking for a moment Longinus nods to the village elder, reaching into his satchel he pulls out a couple of fliers. "I'll help you solve this, in return you pass these around." he says with a nod. "It's open to everyone." he says with a nod, before going back to the crime scene.

 

Davon Timinus reaches into his pocket and pulls out some nicely seared venison, not more than a few hours old "Good boy, here's a treat, your a good boy." He stops petting the dog. And walks over to Longinus, saying in an almost whisper. "If you wanna know some details no human could tell you, tell the elder to take extra special care of the pooch, after this is all done and over"

 

The dog gobbles down the treat, barking happily without meaning - the best translation is "JOY" over and over.

 

-= OOC =- Longinus says, "Burning for 3 successes."

-= OOC =- Longinus says, "And burning a will for an extra"

(Judge) Longinus rolls Investigation + Perception: [ 3 5 6 6 7 7 9 <10> ]

        Resulting in 5 successes.

-= OOC =- Longinus says, "9 successes"

 

Longinus looks up from Davon to the village elder, with a nod to the dog, "You'll want to take good care of that dog. It's pertenant to the investigation." he says quietly. Turning back to the scene, he frowns. "This doesn't make any sense." he says as he scribbles a few more notes. "The blood is animal blood, and there's no hair here. Even siderals should've left hair when making the effigy." he says before scratching his head, before stoping.

 

"Erm...if you say so?" The elder offers, moving over to rub the dog, who goes on to roll back and forth and bark out loud joyous celebrations - both a treat AND a petting! What a DAY!

 

Davon Timinus leaning into Longinus, "From what I can get from certain witnesses, there were two men and one woman. And they smelt of fish." He then walks over to the town elder "Do you know of any larger bodies of water around here? Mayhaps any fishing villages"

 

"There's a fishing village nearby," the elder confirms, giving a brief set of directions for them.

 

Davon Timinus says, "If you think we are done here, we could atleast check out the neighboring village, eh Longinus?"

 

Longinus frowns, "Well..." he says to the village elder, "My first instincts here are that this is either other gods, or dragon kings." he says with a frown. "Though from witnesses, it's likely not a dragon king. Did this god have any enemies?" he asks curiously

 

Longinus turns to Davon, "In a few minutes." he says quietly, "I need to make sure this scene is handled well, in case something is missed." he says

 

"I...I don't believe so, no,' the elder shakes his head. "He was a very friendly and well-meaning god."

 

Davon Timinus says, "Okay, Longinus, you finish up here, I'm going to see what I can find out side of town. There might have been people living on the outskirts that saw something odd who haven't heard the news yet." With that he walks out of town. When he is certain noone is watching him anymore he's going to take the form of a wolf and start circling around the perimeter of the town, searching for a scent out of place and distinctively fishy.

 

Longinus scribbles down a few more notes, "It's probably best to track them directly at the moment. Since a God was murdered, this will probably be handled by the celestial bureaucracy." he says. "Frankly, this raises a lot of peripheral questions." he says to Davon.

 

The scent of fish fills Davon's nostrils near the area where the dog specified. It doesn't simply 'appear' and then 'disappear'; it's more like the smell skips around, as though they weren't walking, but teleporting about. Something like that would burn a great deal of motes.

It leads off to the side, skipping about in the direction of the fishing village.

 

The blood of the animal on the effigy, upon close inspection, doesn't match any animals native. It must've been something brought in specifically for this purpose. Closest inspection reveals that it's the blood of a tyrant lizard.

 

Looking over at the village elder, Longinus frowns. "This is the blood of a tyrant lizard." he says quietly. "Do you know why someone would leave this on the effigy?" he asks curiously. "This have any meaning for you, or the murdered god?" he asks

 

"...Mar-Ru-Sakkai once told me," the Elder says quietly, "That he had been part of a union with one of those creatures - you called them Dragon Kings? - ages ago. Long before this village was here. Perhaps that's what it means?"

 

Longinus shakes his head, "I'll look into this, I may have to see one of the leaders of the Dragon Kings." he says with a frown, before scratching down a few more notes. "Is there anything else you can tell me?" he asks, "Anything that could help me with this investigation?"

 

"...there's a wolf in the town," the Elder points out after a moment, staring at Davon pointedly.

 

The wolf walks over to Longinus and sits down next to the man, slightly nuzzling his left, right behind the knee.

Longinus looks over at the wolf and nods back to the village elder. "I'll go take a look." he says quietly as he stands up and puts his book away. Walking quietly he approaches the wolf and nods to him. "Shall we?" he asks

The wolf stands and follows after Longinus. As the two leave town and get out of ear shot the wolf looks up, "So the scent seemingly jumps from place to place leading to the fishing village one town over. I haven't gone there yet, as I wanted to wait for you." he says in the voice of Davon.

 

Longinus looks down at the wolf, "I don't believe I caught your name by the way." he says quietly. "And it's likely a dragon king is involved. There was tyrant lizard blood on the effigy." he says quietly.

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